What the Davies' do: Studio time with Miles.

A little collection of my son and his favourite slogan t shirts.  Some more relevant than others. Ha!

I love that I am able to capture him and all his expressions.  Kids do pull the funniest of faces and don't even care and I love that too.  So we spent a short while in my studio a few weeks ago taking some photos for his room (and for my memories).

I bet your kids are full of character...  Make sure you capture them as much as you can.  Remember and preserve those expressions and funny little faces they make while they're still little.   

Thanks for looking.  Fleur x

(click into the images for better quality viewing...  thanks!)

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....  ;)

A Mother's Dream: Above all, be grateful.

Another month has passed and here I am writing this instalment of my entry into the A Mother's Dream blog circle.  However this, this is the first one I am writing from my new desk in my new studio.  Woohooo!  Exciting.

It's a quiet evening in early July.  It's been a sunny day; warm and humid.  The kids have just got themselves off to bed and where I would usually take this opportunity to drag myself up to my bedroom and chill out with my current box set, I have decided to get this little entry posted.

Here I sit, the air has cooled and the general hustle and bustle of our terraced neighbourhood is slowing down.  I can hear a distant wind chime from a neighbouring yard and in my own yard, an intermittent soft clucking from my four hens whose run is about 8 metres from the new farmhouse chair where I'm perched.  I bought it today for my new desk in my new studio. *squeee*

No 'make this studio work' pressure being felt here!  Honest!  It's up and running now and I've been concentrating on further developing my portrait craft.  I love a good portrait.  I've been lucky enough to receive a huge amount of support with this slightly new direction.  For that I am truly grateful.  I am grateful to all my friends who have offered their time, ideas and kids up to help me out.  It means the world guys, it really does.  But my biggest thanks of all must go to my family - especially my husband who has let me throw so much caution to an unknown wind at this and also my 3 amazing kids.  They know no different than to be in front of my camera.  The day will come when they will moan, I'm sure.  But for now they're sort of ok with me clicking away at them.

Over the last month I have dragged my kids in the studio plenty to help me out and I've got myself really fired up for this new venture.  I've found a greater respect for portrait photography and for the patience and time it can take to get more than just a snapshot of a face.  See, I have always had this little mantra when it comes to a lot of my work involving people:  "You being you".  And I don't really want that to change too much with my portrait work.  In fact I don't want it to change at all.   If you come to my studio for a session I want the portraits you leave with to be authentically you.  I know on occasion I will want some conceptual arty farty stuff going on and that's fine - it's playing - and we learn through play.  But right now I would love for you to look at your portraits, or your kid's portraits or your sister's, brother's, grandparent's and think - yep - that's them.  If you can look at a portrait and recognise the person's playful side, their happiness at that moment or thoughtful expression, or mischievous grin - my job is done.

So now that I've rambled for a while it brings me neatly to the portraits I tried to capture on a whim a week or so ago of my 3 kids.  We had just visited our local cinema in New Brighton on a Sunday morning, as the forecast the day before when we booked the tickets had been fairly dismal.  We watched our film and exited to a lovely amount of sunshine.   Looking down to the beach we see that the tide is out and so decide to take a little walk on the sand.  I haven't been taking my camera out with me as often as I would like, but I did on that day.

As we walked I asked the kids to help me out with some photos.  They were all happy to.  Although I did find myself getting agitated with my youngest.  He's a ball of fiery energy and the standing still for more than 10 seconds was quite clearly getting to him.  But do you know what?  It didn't matter.  I came away thinking "Oh well, at least I'm happy with the girls' photos."  It was only as I uploaded the files the following day that I laughed and laughed at all the images of my little fella.  Every photo was HIM.  His mischievousness, his distain, his boredom, his glee...  How could I not be happy with this?  It's exactly who he is, all rolled up into portraits.  And I'll be grateful for that.

Thanks for reading peeps.  Have a wonderful morning/afternoon/evening.

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

Once you've had a look-see at the 9 portraits attached you can head on over to the next

A Mother's Dream blog entry by Emily Frances - which can be found: BY CLICKING HERE.

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

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.)

Birthday boy

It's criminal that I am now the mother of a 6 year old!  I know, I know - I'm also the mother of an (almost) 10 year old and an 8 year old...  What I should actually say is, it's criminal that my YOUNGEST is six years old!  Urrgghhhh!

He's a handful.  A ball of energy.  Funny.  More clever than he likes to let on.  Feisty.  And always has time for a cuddle with his Mummy (for now.)

So on the morning of his birthday I told him we MUST document the fact he's turned this grand age.  He said himself how he felt so much bigger and better now that he is 6.   He got himself dressed and I put him in his sister's room for a background where I could concentrate on just him and his character.  This is how that documenting went...

Thanks for looking.

Fleur x

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

What the Davies' do: 'It was a big day for this little guy!'

I'm trying something new.

I've just began running my business with a new name - Fleur Davies Photography instead of Fleur Louise Photography.  Nothing major.  My work remains the same, but it does come at a time where some new and exciting ventures are in the pipeline...

I'll get to that at another time.  For now though, I want to introduce what I hope will become a new, regular feature.

I love working for my clients, capturing the images they envisage, whether it's portraits, candid lifestyle shoots, their products or some of my own landscape, street or still life photography for them to admire on their walls.  However I do photograph a lot just for me.  I document as much of my family's life as possible.  I always have.  They are our memories frozen and I've always believed that the everyday - mundane even, images, they matter just as much a the big life events.

So the "What the Davies' do" idea was born.  My journey to a photographic artist is as much to my family's credit as it is mine.  They let me spend time capturing them.  They put up with me dragging behind on days out so that I can get the shot I want of something that has caught my eye.  They are used to my camera being whipped out at any moment.  Whether they like it or not!  Ha!!

Therefore I'm making a feature of it.  Fleur Davies Photography is so much more than me pressing some buttons on a camera - it's my life and the life of my family.  I don't want to forget where I started and where I go to grow.  Without further ado - here we go.  The first "What the Davies' do" blog...

It was a BIG day for this little guy!

He had been waiting so long.  I remember thinking that actually he was fairly late to the game with this teeth malarky; both of his sisters losing their first teeth in their foundation year of primary school.  We had thought his first tooth loss would be extremely premature after the 'smashing his face on a gate' incident in nursery.  His top front tooth is still a bit wonky, but stayed put - thankfully.

Anyway, he'd been wibbling and wobbling this bottom one for a while.  Daydreaming about the bedtime he could tuck in under his pillow inside an envelope for the tooth fairy to come and exchange it for some dosh.  And he knew that the first tooth in the Davies household is a fiver - he was already mentally spending it.  Each day he would push it one way as far as it would go, then back the other way.  Determined.

Then one afternoon at my Mum-in-law's, while he was chatting away to his Nanny - it just came out. Plop.  Right out of his mouth.  Considering it fell out of it's own accord there was a decent amount of blood.  And as I had guessed the next adult tooth was very visible underneath too.

Proud as punch would be an accurate description to his little face.  And the Tooth Fairy did come that night and he did get his fiver.  He still hasn't spent it either!  He must have big plans.

Thanks for reading - here are the visuals.  (There's some blood - sorry.)

x Fleur x 

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