February 18, 2013

You see your children or your partner everyday. Obvious statement I know.  But do you really see and recognise the extent of changes that occur in one year?  From personal experience, I know I certainly don’t.

Every year whilst we are on our annual holiday, Israel takes our children’s (Indrani & Rilien) portraits at the exact same spot – Killick Creek at Crescent Head. Every year, I ask myself the same question. When and how did they change this much in one year? Did I really see them everyday? Yes in the truest sense I did, but somewhere in the midst of doing the do of daily life, I didn’t really see or appreciate their important changes. This little collection of portraits shows what I mean.

The above image is our absolute favourite from this year. It beautifully depicts the developmental stage of both of them. Indrani at 6 (almost 7 mum – can you hear it!), is all about fashion. She just loves it when her strap or sleeve on a top falls off her shoulder. She drives Israel to the brink of insanity at shoots now because she is always up for a good pose. Rilien is at the stage of ‘must be moving – All.The.Time.’ – climb, run, throw, anything physical – all with a cheeky grin.


I couldn’t resist but to include last 3 years portraits at this spot. It really shows the extent of change that happens in 3 short but extremely fast years. From bottom right when Rilien was a compliant 2 month old, to the image above where he had learnt to move & there was no way he was going to sit still, to just over 2 years old and really loving playing games with Indrani. And I adore how this years portrait shows just how clearly they get into each others world.


These 2 sets of last year and this year pictures clearly show what’s happened to our little girl somewhere between Kindy and year 1 ending.  She still looks the same, but she is so much more confident in herself and doesn’t mind to ham it up a bit either. Seriously, both of this years images are totally unsolicited poses. This is just who our girl is at the moment. Just how did our little 1.84 kilo 7 week premmie sparrow morph into this beautiful confident girl? And how about our boy’s changes. The one thing that remains constant between last year & this year is his cheek. Sad as it makes me, he is just not a baby anymore. He’s a boy! Rough, loud, cheeky, adorable. This years picture below with him in the check shirt will always remind me of him telling me he wants to wear a “client shirt”. You see it has buttons & a collar, just like the shirts dad wears when he meets clients, so he just loves wearing client shirts. Did I mention adorable before?

All the following images are favourite moments from this years portrait shoot. Each one of them tells a story. 
This is just so typical of Indrani & Rilien’s relationship. The position of her hands tells me she is shaping up to do a cartwheel (a non-stop activity at the moment), and Rilien grabbing at her is so typical of him trying to get her attention.


Our rough & tumble guy, always on the go. And our beautiful girl, always in the moment of just moving her body. 

Melt my heart moments. I know this very special relationship may not last forever, but I am so enjoying how much love and fun these two have.

Cartwheels, stretching, always on the go.

I don’t mind admitting that I tear up when I look at these photos. PAUSE button required now – Please Universe!
I just love this image above – there is something about them being apart, yet not too far apart that gets me. The sunlight catching their little bodies and the way they are moving says so much about their ages.

And this year, just to try it out, Israel did a selfie family portrait using a tripod. I have to be honest & say it was not a fabulous experience (ready, set, Israel running from behind the camera & jumping in, go) and I would much prefer for one of our fabulous photographer friends do our family portraits but this one shot did catch us in the moment of just being us. Wind swept, in love and listening intently to one of Indrani’s many stories. Perfect time capsule moment. 

Thank you for reading and sharing our family. Bel & Israel x

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