School Photos ~ Cumming GA Child Photographer

School photo shoots aren't for the faint-hearted - especially when it's littlies!  They keep you running but boy, it's a load of fun.  You see the whole range of reactions: beaming smiles, wide-eyed wonder, a few little tears, shy smiles, total hams and some flat out wails.

One of my favourite photos was a little guy of about 3 months.  He'd been crying and so my assistant picked him up and calmed him.  I photographed him over her shoulder, making sure only he was in the image.  He's staring straight at the camera, eyes wide open, with one last little tear spilling over onto his cheek.  So precious!

And then there's the one with three siblings on a park bench: the older two are looking at the camera while the youngest is letting out a balled-fisted, face-scrunched howl.  His mum says she has wall space and a frame earmarked for that one.

Here are some of the photos from the shoot.  (Note that I only post photos that have a signed model release from the parents.)

New Zealand - Saying Goodbye to Franz Josef Glacier

One thing about New Zealand weather is it's changeable nature.  The various mountain ranges cause a vast difference in weather patterns within a few kilometres.  These two photos below are a good example.  The first is taken near the base of Franz Josef, looking west as the river winds its way out to the Tasman Sea.  You couldn't ask for prettier blue skies.

I don't much like that there are a bunch of tourists in my photo (just as I'm in theirs!), but they do give a sense of scale; showing the size of this flat, broad valley that is typical of one formed by a glacier.  Valleys caused by rivers are V-shaped.

Here we have one last look back at the glacier before taking the trail back to the carpark.  There was a bit of a storm brewing over the mountains, giving us the push needed to get back on our journey south. The stream in the foreground is from the waterfall you can see on the left of the photo above.  Notice that it's your standard, clear water and not the milky colour of the glacial river shown above.

Franz Josef used to fill the valley as far as the scrub line in this photo.  As you can see, it's receded quite considerably.  But before you go all 'global warming!' on me, the glacier has gone through several periods of growing and receding over the past 260-odd years.  

In 1750 it filled the valley well beyond where the river disappears around the corner in the top photo and over the next 150 years, it slowly shrank back to the scrub line.  From around 1910-1990 Franz Josef experienced a roughly 20 year cycle of advance and retreat.  In 2000 it advanced significantly, to about as far as you can see in the top photo.

I remember a time when you could put a stick in the ground at the base of the glacier at the start of the day  and by night the stick would be swallowed up in ice.  Franz Josef may be a shadow of his former glory, but he's well capable of marching his way back down the mountain.  He's done it before.

For more in the New Zealand series, click HERE

Spring Smiles ~ Cumming GA Family Photographer

Come spring and early summer in Georgia and *everyone* wants to get out and play - after the pollen's gone, that is.  Here are some smiles for you - Mum and Dad with two adorable little boys.  The youngest decided to try out his climbing skills and I caught a series of photos that just begged to be turned into a single image.  I love his expression as he realised he made it!