What the Davies' do: Embrace the moments that mean more.

I'm catching up on a lot of personal editing this week.  I've backlogged a lot of days recently.  I have snapped away and forgotten about images.  Even though these photos were only a few weeks ago I had forgotten I'd even taken them.  It was only as I was getting around to archiving my monthly files as I do by routine that I remembered this evening down on the prom.  An evening that was intensely bright, the sun still so very high in the sky.  Basically a bit of a nightmare light situation, so maybe that's why the following images were abandoned at first take...

I opened these last night and realised I had edited a couple to share, but I went ahead and quickly did the rest too.  Sure, the shadows are awful but the content of the images isn't - not to me anyway.  I can look beyond the unfortunate light and see the connection and love between my 3 kids.  Any parent will know - even the ones who say their kids get on OK mostly - that having actual recorded evidence of them playing together and having fun is worth it's weight in gold.   I know I am far too quick to cliche their daily fallouts and hourly digs at one another as 'usual sibling behaviour', so images of them getting along can be as bad as they want as long as I've got them. 

This was Father's Day.  We'd had a lovely family BBQ earlier on and because the weather was still so lovely we headed down to the prom for a little drink looking out across the river.  The area was filled with likeminded families and as I sipped my grape juice (mine might've been of Sauvignon variety) I watched my 3 lovelies jump and skip around - taking their own photos and recording slow motion videos on my eldest daughter's phone.

They had so much fun - no arguments, no fighting, no teasing.  It lasted for at least 20 minutes.  Amazing!

Here you go.

Thanks for reading peeps.  Best wishes,

x Fleur x 

(as always, click into the images for better quality viewing - thanks!)

My husband also took some photos of what was important to him too....  ;)

What the Davies' do: Lilli, 10 years in the making.

There's too much to say right now.   I've started this blog at least 4 times.  I've typed and then hit the delete key over and over.  I can't find the right words to express how I feel about my first born getting to double digits.

10 years have gone in a flash.  We couldn't be more proud of the girl who first made us a family.  A whole decade of parenting has completely flown by.  And I feel like we've done OK.  There's been many a tough time, hundreds of arguments, plenty of tears and tantrums - not just from her.  Ha!  But the be all and end all of it is that this kid (along with her younger sister and brother) makes us the happiest parents ever.  I could carry on and on about how much I love her.  But I don't need to do that.  I'm certain many of you know exactly how I feel if you have children yourselves.  High tens all round for our amazing offspring!

The following images were taken a few weeks before she turned 10.  I had came across these fun sunglasses for a great price in Home Bargains and Lilli was excited to use them to create some new artwork for her bedroom wall.  There was no pressure here.  Just a Mum and daughter having fun.  The studio wasn't even fully ready at this point - it was literally just a wooden box.  But we didn't let that put us off.

As Lilli wanted these for her walls I opted for a variety of fun editing styles.  Which I love.  It was a bit of an epiphanic moment actually.  I spend so much time thinking my work 'should' look like this or that.  And it should stay looking like this or that.  But why?  I always describe myself as eclectic in my tastes.  It's going to start coming through more in my work from now on too.  Now that I'm officially old and wise! 😉  Or thats the plan anyway...

Thanks for looking,

Fleur x ~ https://fleurdavies.wixsite.com/fleurdaviesphoto

(As always, click into the images to see them at full resolution.  Cheers loves!)

Couples Photography | Pete & Debs are to wed...

There's a special day planned this summer.  Pete and Debs are set to wed!

I have no doubt in my mind that this couple will share a very special place in my heart from now on.  I had the pleasure of meeting Debs a couple of years ago when she was my eldest's class teacher.  She did the world of good for my daughter and definitely still runs high up as "best teacher ever" in my young girl's eyes.  Many tears were shed on the day she left our school to move on with her teaching career.

The evening I received a message from Miss Johnston asking me if I was available to photograph her wedding day in summer 2017 was one of the most exciting things to happen to me in my photography journey.  We exchanged a lovely thread of written messages before meeting in person over a coffee last winter and finalising all the details of our agreement together.

Since then the three of us have met to capture some wonderful images of the happy couple while enjoying their engagement.  I have shared a couple of these images over on my Facebook page and within my Instagram feed, but I knew the time had come to pop a handful of my favourites into a blog entry.

And all I have left to say, is roll on summer!

Thanks for reading.

Fleur x

(PS - It's best to click into the pics too see better quality versions...  Thanks Peeps.)

A Mother's Dream: I will be in the frame too!

A Mother's Dream blog-circle:  I will be in the frame too!


And so here we are in May, at the second month of the lovely blog circle I joined at the start of April.  It's so lovely to see how us photographers who are also Mum's (or vice versa) like to document the time we spend with our kids.  Creating art, or (in my case mostly) just snapping away trying to document every tiny little moment and detail that I will no doubt forget at some point.  Lost to that part of the brain that only recollects with the help of an image on a a piece of glossy paper.

My last blog (not from A Mother's Dream cycle, the one immediately before this) documented my youngest turning 6.  I went for a different style than I'm usually used to shooting.  I would normally just go with real life.  Embracing the mess of our house or the surroundings of wherever we might be with my camera.  But for that moment.  Just after he'd got dressed and just before he opened his gifts, I had asked him for a few minutes of photos.  I wanted to simply capture him and his massive amount of character.  He did well considering he was probably daydreaming the whole time about the new HotWheels and Marvel goodies he had asked for.

So now we come to this month's dream cycle.  And the images that go with it.  They are much more me.  More us.  They are the unplanned.  The off the cuff.  The 'I must remember how cute he looked'. The mess of our home.  But what I loved most about these is that, as I was taking them, I at first was instinctively trying to not show my reflection in the mirrored wardrobes.  But what was I thinking?  I spend so much time behind my camera and never in front.  My kids obviously in years to come will know that it was Mummy who was taking the photo, but in this set I can be seen.  Baggy t shirt, grubby jeans and messy hair to boot.  But that's how they know me.  I'm the Mummy who will play silly games, sing in funny voices, speak in strange accents to make them laugh.  I can definitely make fun of myself.  I am the person that I meant to be because of my kids.  And I will from now make more effort to be in the frame.

Even if it is as a rule breaking reflection in a mirrored wardrobe.


Thanks for reading.  And after you've viewed the pics you can head yourself over to the next blog in this month's 'A Mother's Dream' circle here: "Easter holidays with my little ones." By the lovely Jenna.

Fleur x

(PS - It's best to click into the pics too see better quality versions...  Thanks Peeps.)

Family portraiture: The Brennan family...

I had so much fun last month with the Brennan family!

We met early on a Sunday morning for a family walk in the park down onto the beach...   Jokes were made about how they were getting shots suitable for an album cover.  And funnily enough, a few family members said the same about the finished images.  And I'm good with that - they are a super cool fab four. ;)


Thanks for looking.

x Fleur x


(PS - the trick to seeing better quality versions of the images is to click on them... Cheers loves!)