Photography - My Journey
Hello and Welcome.
I am so pleased that you have stopped by my website!
My name is Alex, owner and photographer at A Country Tale Photography located in the picturesque Mount Dandenong Ranges in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
As this is my very first blog post, I thought it would be very fitting to set out my life's journey with photography and how my passion to grew to where it is today.
I have been a lover of photography for as long as I can remember. One of my favourite childhood memories was pulling out my parents' big box of photographs which sat in my Dad's wardrobe and going through their memories. I just loved looking at photos of when my dad had long hair, listening to the coos from my mum of "wasn't he handsome". Seeing the houses my Dad grew up in in England while he pointed out various relatives to me, most of whom I had never and would never meet.
{ Me as a baby with my Dad. One I stole from the photo box! }
I think I was about 7 years old when I was given my first "real" camera and I immediately set about posing my neighbourhood friend and four year old sister in various inspired locations around our home (in front of the cubby house, under the outdoor table on our balcony, and up in the rickety tree house my dad started building and never finished). Even though it was not that long ago that I was 7 (or was it), my little camera had a roll of film that had to be developed before I could see the "amazing" photos I had taken. I still have these photos printed in my childhood photo album that I bought myself at a school fete, and pull it out every so often to flick through the memories. Unfortunately, my little sister had decided that the Australian sun was just too hot for clothing that week (which was as long as the reel of film lasted), so in the majority of those particular photos she appears nude! This was the very beginning of my love affair with photography and from thereon out I would never have a camera far from my hands.
A few years later we put our house up for sale and I set about posing my little sister amongst my mum's beloved rose bushes which also had a lovely view of the back of our home. The real estate agent loved the photo so much they ended up using it on the billboard to sell our home. I still remember the agent telling my mum that they had had a lot of enquiries as to whether the little red head girl came with the house! Haha. Looking at it now, I wish my 10 year old self knew how to photoshop out that hose!!
As I grew I always made sure I always had a camera with me. I remember travelling to the USA when I was 13 and being petrified that the scanner at the airport would develop the film in my camera and the spare rolls in my bag.
I always printed my photos and carefully placed them in my many albums. When cameras turned digital I continued printing my photos, unable to get the habit that had been so completely engrained in me from film cameras out of my system, and at the same time being unable to let go of the satisfaction of seeing my memories printed and carefully filed away so that I would always have them to show my children memories from that time that I too was young.
When I became pregnant with my first baby I documented every bump growth and every memory of my pregnancy so she could have something special to look back on when she grew up. I wrote all my captions to her like a ten month long love letter.
{ Boxing Day 2013 - Pregnant with Our First Baby Girl }
However, once she was born, the mayhem a newborn brings to a first-time mothers life came roaring into our lives with full force. My beloved camera, which up until a week prior had been used almost daily, was left in it's bag. Hounded with guilt that I was "missing everything" I resorted to my mobile phone to capture the milestones of her first year.
Refusing to completely let go of my traditions, I put together an album for her of her first year using a cheap online album builder. When my album arrived I almost cried. My little girl's precious first year that had only just happened but for the life of me I couldn't remember, would be remembered through blurry, pixelated iPhone photos printed in a cheap album.
I was so upset with myself. After all, I had had the ability to have given her a beautiful album with lovely photos of her first year. But due to the business of life, I had settled for what was convenient. I had missed out on her first year but I absolutely refused to have her future years remembered in such a disappointing way.
My mind went immediately to the other mothers who would no doubt realise one day just like I had that the memories they have of their children are not good enough to be printed and framed. I also became acutely aware of the fact that many of my friends were not printing at all! Relying on their mobile phones to be a memory vault to be accessed "one day". And even worse, having to comfort them when their phones decided to crash or go through the washing machine without being backed up. Their precious memories lost to the ever-changing revolving door that is our digital era. Which to me was an even sadder thought.
I decided that I wanted to use my love and passion for photography to help other mothers capture their little ones' precious years in a way that they could look back on and laugh and recollect. So just like that, my passion for children's, family and maternity photography was born. And here I sit today, blessed enough to do something every single day that I adore, and lucky enough to be able to share my gift with other mothers who want only the very best for their precious memories.
If you would like me to capture your childrens' precious memories please contact me!
{ My littlest love and I }
{ My husband and our girls }
{ Me and my girls }
Photographer servicing Mount Dandenong, Olinda, Yarra Ranges, Yarra Valley, Coldstream, Croydon, Mooroolbark, Ringwood, Ringwood East, Croydon North, Lilydale, Yarra Glen, Healesville, Mitcham, Nunawading, Blackburn, Box Hill, Warranwood, Wonga Park, Warrandyte, Doncaster, Doncaster East, Surrey Hills, Mont Albert, Melbourne, Richmond, Glenferrie, Toorak, South Yarra, Ivanhoe, Hawthorn, Glen Iris, Burwood, Forest Hill, Glen Waverley, Mount Waverley, Clayton, Oakleigh, Fitzroy
