A Day To Breathe... {Wagga Wagga Fine Art Photographer}

Today there is no work... Today is a day to rest, to indulge...

fresh cut flowers... Vanilla candle... Caramel latte... Michael Buble serenading me from the CD player...

Could life be any more perfect?

 

 

 

I Heart Faces: Sun Flare {Wagga Wagga Portrait Photographer}

They have shared laughter... and love...

They have shared new life... and much loss.  They have beaten oh~so~many odds stacked against them...

and marched onward... upward... to the beat of their very own drum.

They have been blessed... Many times over...

And here they stand... Together... a symbol of their ever~growing love within her arms...

With the world as their oyster... With their kindred spirits by their sides...

Together...

With the glow of each of their father's love...

From heaven...

Kissing their skin... Warming their world... Lighting their way...

Sun Flare?  I think not.

As always, there will be a myriad of talent at I Heart Faces this week...

I can't wait to see them all:

http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

Stop A While... {Wagga Wagga Fine Art Photographer}

Life gets crazy~busy all too often.

We forget to stop... To look around us...and see the beauty there...

In every corner.

It should not be so easily overlooked...

Now on Facebook!! {Wagga Wagga Portrait Photography}

Hayley Johnson Photography now has a Facebook Fan Page, just click HERE to pop on over and become a fan!!

Because a few is never enough... {Wagga Wagga Child Portrait Photographer}

These photos are simply too pretty not to share more...

I enjoyed editing this session as much as I loved the session itself... I love it when I find images that just blow me away as I work through them... Images that scream childhood... that define the personality of my subject... that capture moments of everyday life... that freeze that very second in time... to love always...

I know that is how Montanna and Mackenzie's Mum feels about these images as she looks through them... the expressions.. the missing teeth... the relationship her beautiful daughters share... all of them... moments of one little time in their lives... captured forever.

I hope I have done those moments justice...

Is that a little bit of SASS I see here??

It would be so easy to get lost in her eyes...

Oh, they just look little little ladies!!

Soul~Full

They have the most incredibly beautiful smiles

Deep into the creek bed... beyond the thick, luscious ground cover... a clearing...
where it seems all the world but here ceases to exist... a place of beauty... serenity... magic.

They are just so simply sweet together!

There is no doubt that Mackenzie looks up to Montanna... 
and what an amazing and beautiful role model she is!

And finally... the day had come... for the sweet sun to kiss her skin.

Contemplation...

Dream on Sweetheart...

Stop.  Breathe.  Rest a minute.
Smell the flowers.

Sweet, Sweet Treats {Wagga Wagga Child Portrait Photographer}

It has been months since we first set the wheels in motion... Since my vision of all things pink... pretty... frilly...

B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L began to blossom...

Since I was asked to document these stunningly beautiful darlings.

We eagerly awaited Spring... the months when the rain would no longer fall... long after the winds had blown the storms into the distance.

We longed for warmer days... for tutus... wildflowers... the sweet sun kisses upon our skin...

As the days began to warm, the anticipation grew... We set the date.

Mother Nature had plans of her own... the long green grass now withering under the savage heat of the Wagga sun...

Summer.  Premature.
Would our vision come to life?

We were blessed with the beauty of a creek bed... a clearing... a magical land all of our very own...

where for just a short while we were able to pretend that Spring was still here...

within our grasp... as it should be.

And although I suffered terribly from heatstroke come the afternoon...

my few hours with these two princesses... in our own private little world... with petti~skirts and teddy bears...

surrounded by thick, lush growth and wildflowers...

Were fun... and amazing... and boy, Oh~so~Sweet!!

Here is a little of what I was able to capture of this most precious little twosome...

Our journey began at what would have to be one of our city's most delightful little treasures...
"At the Farm" is the cutest little shabby chic, rustic cafe around... and also where I spend quite a lot of my weekends with my family!  The humble old homestead sits by the highway in Gumly Gumly, on the outskirts of town.  Set on a paddock, filled to the brim with old, mismatched creme cast iron and timber furniture...
a most fitting setting for a princess tea party... My youngest sister and I often spend our days there... reading... knitting... chatting... while Alexander and Ella play in the sand pit... kick the soccer ball... feed the horses and sheep... just BE.

And so... I knew, from the moment we planned our portrait session... that right there, at the farm...

at a small cast iron table, painted creme...

under the orange trees... under the lanterns...

would be the most perfect place for a tea party...

Fit for two adorable princesses.

About one minute before this shot was taken, I said to Mackenzie, "Take a sip from your teacup for me sweetie"... and she glanced at me as though I were a madwoman and said "I don't have milk in it yet!!"

Montanna is an avid  reader... and so her Mum asked me to bring along one of my old books... Montanna was amazed to discover that my complete poetical works of Lord Byron is around 110 years old!

It was a little more difficult to get this shot than it should have been... Mackenzie was none too thrilled to be asked to hold up the mirror for her sister... as Montanna had just applied some nail polish to Mackenzie's toes... and half her foot... and little Miss M was UNIMPRESSED and refused to talk to her big sis for a little while!!

A little ruffled... crooked... hair a mess... a mismatched fairy... G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S!!!

How stunningly beautiful are these girls?!  

Meet Goldie...
She came along for our session also... a much loved part of the family

This photo makes me wish I had a big sister...

Montanna is just such a wonderful older sister... You can just see Mackenzie's eyes light up when she is with her!

Oh, how I love this age... gaps in gums... a mix of child and adult teeth... just so beautiful!

I loved everything about this session... EVERYTHING, that is except the heatstroke later that afternoon...

I am quite sure there will be more to come very soon...

For months... the

I had a F.U.N. session with two of THE prettiest little dolls today... But... Unfortunately we overdid it just a little and after three hours out in the heat I came home red~faced and with a touch of heatstroke... So, my afternoon was spent resting and feeling really unwell, so I have hardly had an opportunity to even look over the beautiful images let alone edit them!  So, here is a little sneak peek... More to come really really soon!!

Luck of the Irish???

I have always been a fairly lucky person...

I win things... Never big things... But still... I win...

Easter raffles... Small giveaways...

And it's nice...

Wonderful...

All Things Nice ... {Wagga Wagga Child Portrait Photographer}

I do not have a daughter of my own... I was blessed with a darling boy... Whom I adore... I can not deny that as I document little girls... in their pretty dresses... and ribbons... and flowers in their hair...

That I wish a little for all of that...

For princess costumes... For pretend pearls... For petti~skirts... For marshmallow pink.

There is just something ever so precious... So fragile... and dainty... About little girls...

I am thankful for five nieces... and my work...

Where I get my fill...

Where I fall in love... Adore... Indulge

...In All Things Nice...

November Skies {Wagga Wagga Fine Art Photographer}

I could not say... whether it is that suddenly... the very first moment November began... The skies are more beautiful than they have ever been... blue... stretching out to far beyond where my eyes can see... to where my imagination takes over... or whether it is simply that my eyes are open... to all the beauty that surrounds me...

that suddenly I am able to see cotton candy clouds amidst a sea of blue... for the very first time... as perfectly as they rest... suspended there... in mid air... as though I could leap into them... and they would catch me in their feathery embrace... that I could rest there... for all eternity... Each day now... as I walk... drive... I am distracted by the beauty of the November skies... Soul Full.

 

A Journey Home {Wagga Wagga Fine Art Photographer}

The journey home was so much less emotional than I had anticipated it to be... Perhaps because now it is all familiar again... I did not go home expecting my childhood house to be standing... or for there to be old friends still in their homes of days gone by... Perhaps because there were no expectations... Just a little old town... Population approx. 500... long, narrow streets spotted with old, sometimes abandoned houses... paddocks unused... Filled with old wrecked cars and trucks... or beautiful horses...

New people... To whom this is now home... To whom I am a stranger...

Perhaps it is because this time I was visiting as a photographer... not a woman hoping to recover something lost in her youth... or a child trying to capture something in her adulthood...

Perhaps this time I was able to see the things I had forgotten... the beautiful things I left behind fourteen years ago when we left there... when we did not look back...

The things I took for granted until I have lived so long without...

Open skies... Uninterrupted... Stunningly beautiful... Real...

Paddocks of golden straw... like a field of golden silk... stretching out to the horizon... Endless...

Trees... adorned with beautiful tiny leaves of green... Reaching up from the Earth in all their glory... With crisp pink peppercorns... That will inevitably fall... But not from Grace... To the soil beneath... Where a new life will blossom...

And suddenly... I am sad to bid farewell... To say goodbye to this town... as I look back... Finally.