Driving Home {Wagga Wagga Portrait Photographer}

Driving back to this town is always slightly emotional for me.  It is the town where I spent the longest as a child.  It is the town I call home.  Not much of my life is there now, with my childhood home no longer standing... Now, just an empty block of land that reveals nothing
of its former life... nothing of the old white house with paint peeling from its walls, that was once filled with the noise of five children... or the scent of wood fires.
No hint of where a lawn once covered a front yard... where I would jump ever so high on the trampoline... Up, Up... Until she could see me... my very best friend...
who would jump just as high... or higher... on her own trampoline... a block away from me... and I would yell to her... that yes, she could have a sleepover.
No hint of a peach tree, that once stood by the corner of the house... a tree that was adorned with the largest juicy white peaches I had ever seen... or tasted.
Nothing of my childhood is there now... But an old peppercorn tree by the lane... Where afternoons were spent climbing... sitting upon a beautiful branch that
sprawled horizontally from its trunk... as though made just for us... Peeling open the crisp, mauve shell that encased the seeds... to inhale the unique scent
of peppercorn upon our fingers... Where plans were devised... and secrets were shared... Where I hid from my younger siblings... The only hint of my childhood there.

A town once filled with family...
Last year was my first visit home in 13 years.  Our family and close friends had long since moved on.  

 

Life was not always perfect there... 

But still, there was a sense of family I have never experienced anywhere else.

Next weekend I will drive back to my hometown for a portrait session...

And I already know that so much of my heart and soul will be in these images...

For so many reasons.

 

Until then... Here are two images of Lilah from yesterday that I have processed with a little vintage cotton candy influence... and I just love them...

I really enjoy the post processing element of photography... For many reasons...

For me, post processing is not about fixing photos that are not quite perfect...

But rather, taking my images to a place where I visualised them to be when I captured them.

You see, an artist's eye visualises not what is, but what can, and will be...

Much like an interior designer who sees a palace in a rundown old building...

or a painter who sees his finished product, long before he ever puts brush to canvas...

I visualise what will be... and I capture with the intent of making that vision come to life...

These two images were captured with that intent...

to give them the sweet softness of cotton candy,

because that is just so very fitting!