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Tag Archives: Lifestyle photography

Fun at the Farm

 

Event Photographer, Birthday Party, Children Photographer, Ayu Srimoyo Photographer

Children’s birthday parties are always interesting to photograph. They are always so colorful and super fun! The kids are usually hyped up and excited, with the undercurrent of organised chaos ‘behind the scene’, as the mothers (with their invisible elves) was doing multitudes of tasks to make the party runs without a glitch. This birthday party at the Farmyard Nursery was nothing but extreme fun. Not only that I got to take photos of happy beautiful children, I got to take photos of children AND baby animals. Who doesn’t love baby animals? (almost) NO ONE, right? Children and baby animals combined, you have BOOM!!!, cuteness overload. Guaranteed.

Birthday Party, Children Photographer, Event Photographer

Birthday Party, Event Photographer, Canberra Photographer

Birthday Party, children birthday party, event photographer, canberra photographer

 

These lucky city kids were enjoying themselves; they pet the guinea (or optional lizards), fed baby chooks and their moms, combed the hair of the donkey, cuddled those super cute little lambs, and more. The barn was bright with all natural lights, made it easier to capture all the sweet moments. But, the young ones were not the only ones who received the children’s love and affection that day, the farm also have big farm animals, and they too were enjoying the attention, and happy to be hand fed by the little hands. There were cows, huge pig, sheep, and also turkeys (who were very noisy), and swans, or were they ducks, or goose. I’m not sure now, I do need to go out to the farm more.

All in all, it was a good day. Hope you enjoy some of the sweet moments captured in the photographs above.

Here is the link to the Farmyard Nursery website www.farmyardnursery.com.au

The farm is located at 25 Mugga Lane, Canberra, and opens by appointment only. For more details, just check out their website!

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Loving Food. Loving Life.

I love food. Everybody knows it. Fortunately, my whole family also lovers of food. We love to eat. We love to make up a milestone or occasions so we can celebrate it with food. We don’t always celebrate these milestones, fake or real, by eating out, we also do the whole going-to-the-fresh market and cook the whole big feast at home, and have some friends around. This time, it was a real celebration. A month ago, our family celebrated a family milestone. Our son just received his sacrament of confirmation, and it’s kind of a biggy. It was a beautiful mass we had with the Archbishop, which left all of us, my family and my son’s sponsor (a.k.a my bff), spiritually refreshed and unexplainably ecstatic. So yeah, we celebrate!

We went to one of our favorite restaurants here in Canberra, Pialligo Estate. We have been there before, back in March, for my birthday, and we just love it. I brought my camera this time too, because I just kind of miss it. It’s been awhile since the last time I took photos for the fun of it. In previous years, especially when I was doing my Project 365, I was almost never without my camera in my hands, and I remember how much joy I had from taking photographs just for me. Do not get me wrong. I love my clients, and I am grateful for the trust and work they give me. I just miss the selfishness that sometimes required when I take photos just for me, when I answer to no one, and I take photos the way I like it. I was in a mission to find that pure joy again, while celebrating family milestone with good food.

In short, celebration + delicious food + photography = win win win.

Here are some family shots during our lunch. We, the adults, opted for a 6 course degustation menu. So we were there awhile, filled with anticipation, and later food, then happiness.

 

 

All this talk about good food…it seems wrong if I don’t share with you what we ate. Non foodies out there, you can just move along and go straight to the non-food photos at the end. My fellow foodies however, enjoy the photos and the description of the whole menu below.

6 course degustation menu - Pialligo Estate, Canberra

This is our 6 course degustation menu. I asked my husband to take a photo of the menu so I can see again in details what I had that day. I am no food critic, so I won’t make any comment about each food. I can only say it was a party in my mouth between 1 – 5PM that day. And I had to skip dinner because there was just no space left.

Top left – Fraser Island Spanner Crab, Watermelon, Raddish & Smoked Cream

Top right – Heritage Sweet Potatoes, Local Walnut, Buttermilk, Salted Lemon & Ossau Iraty

Bottom right quadrant, top left – Line-Caught Snapper, Young Fennel, Diamond Shell Clams, Almond & Blood Orange

Bottom left – Full-Blood Wagyu from David Blackmore, Spring Onions, Jerusalem & Globe Artichoke

Bottom right quadrant, center bottom – Selection of Australian & International Cheese

Bottom right quadrant, top right – Varlhona Jivara Chocolate, Macadamia Nut, Wattleseed & Coffee

You think this is all we ate that day, right. Wrong. The wonderful people of Pialligo Estate, they love to feed people good food. The didn’t think the six plate of food is plenty for one person to take. They served us a pre-starter, pre-dessert, and post dessert. The photos below show these three additional food, plus my daughter’s dessert. She didn’t want the ‘default’ dessert set for kiddies, she asked the waiter for the chef to make her something fruity. Or a plate with some fruit and ice cream combo. She was plenty happy with what was served.

 

Extras - Pialligo Estate, Canberra

 

These ‘extras’ were not in the menu, so I am just going to explain them to the best of my ability. Top left, pre-starter, smoked salmon with lovely fresh herbs, and a dollop of some sort of cream cheese inside pork crackling thingy. The first ‘mmm’ came out thanks to these babies. Top right was my daughter’s dessert. Vanilla ice cream, strawberries, poached pear, some nutty crumbs and super duper yummy honey comb made fresh. Bottom right was pre dessert, I think. I couldn’t think now. I couldn’t remember what ice cream that was, but it was served with lovely blackberries, candied sweet potatoes (I could just make this thing up now), and gingerbread pieces. Last but definitely not least, the bottom left photo, it’s an array of goodness in sweets. A cup of salted caramel toffee (of fudge?), beautiful soft little donuts, marshmallows, and mint macarons.

My son did not have the six course degustation menu, he picked his three course menu that day. We have learned the hard way last  March, that he could eat as much as an adult. We made a mistake of ordering him a kiddy steak last time, and it was not enough so we had to order him two portion. It was a lesson well learned. He was really happy with his lunch that day, he made a suggestion to come back every month. Yeah. Right. We could, if we just fast the 30 days in between our monthly visit. Sure, child, why not.

The sun was almost setting when we finally emerged back to the outside world. We took a couple of photos around the lovely estate.

 

Post Lunch - Pialligo Estate, CanberraPost Lunch - Pialligo Estate, Canberra

 

Feeling so blessed. And hungry too now…

 

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May Wedding

Finally, FINALLY!! I have completed the mammoth task that was my sister’s in law’s wedding from last May. The wait was finally over (for her), and I even managed to have everything ready for her and new hubby to view exactly on her birthday two weeks ago. She said it was the best birthday present ever! Phew.

I have featured her wedding dress in another post, and today I just want to share a few of my favourites. Since I was at the wedding in a family capacity, not an official photographer one, I did not cover the complete day. I whipped out my camera during preparations, family gathering stuff, and a bit during reception and dinner party. It was an especially long day. I was already by the bride’s side when the make up lady came at 8 AM, and only went to bed around 2AM, the next day.

After viewing the photos, the bride said ” ..you managed to capture the feelings of the whole day on the pictures you sent me! You have it all. The love between us on the opening dance, the excitement during make-up as well as the taste of the food on the reception and the dinner later on!“. 

Oh Joy.

The bride’s preparation and family stuff at home

DSC_7628 - 2296Click image to view it in larger size.

At the Party

Click image to view it in larger size.

Kathia's Wedding Reception

 

All that Dancing

Click image to view it in larger size.

In Belgium, your wedding day usually starts with pre-noon drinking. This is when the groom-to-be and entourage pick you (the bride) up from your house, present you with a lovely bouquet of flowers for you to hold during the procession, and basically make sure you are there and ready. This is also the time when the two families mingle and exchange pleasantries over some light snacks and champagne before the more serious stuff begins. Then everyone will be ushered into their assigned cars, that have already lined up in the right order, to go to the town house to meet the town’s mayor who is going to legally marry you. This process takes about a half hour tops. If you choose Jesus, then your next step after this is to head straight to the church. Depending on the timing, this is the time the bridal party likes to sneak in some photo sessions. While all the make up is still intact, and everybody feels jolly still from the morning bubbly earlier. The church ceremony is pretty standard. You can have it short (no songs), or you can drag it out longer (more readings, longer songs, slower walk) as you like. Next on the list is the reception. The wedding reception generally runs before dinner, 5-7 PM, for colleagues, relatives you love less than your first cousin, friends of your parents, well, you know the bunch. These people are served canapes and alcoholic beverages. Invites to the dinner party usually already arrive at this time as well, so they really have to pace themselves on food and booze if they are going to fit anything inside their belly at dinner party afterwards. Dinner starts the real celebration of the wedding day, and the usual first dance, thanking parents and cutting the cake are included. The dancing that comes after dinner runs pretty much all night long. At my own wedding party I remember I went to bed around 5 AM. It is hardcore.

This was my daughter’s first wedding party. She was super excited with all the dancing. Her eyes went as big as saucers, and her smile never left her face. She danced with her father, me, or whoever took her little hands that night. There were a couple of shots I took that night when she was dancing with the father of the groom, who is an excellent dancer. He is a great ballroom dancer. He was awesome. He took me to the dance floor as well, but soon ditched me, because of my two left feet. Ballroom dancing is really not my thing, that is my excuse and I stand by it. This father of the groom danced with my daughter and it was a sight to see. They both were really into it and my daughter’s expression was so priceless.

 

And here are other captures from the dance floor. This time it is very precious to me. Made my heart ache a little, how sweet it was. The father and daughter dance.

The party went on until the wee hours of the morning, but we were out after midnight. My daughter was almost asleep on her feet so tired from all the excitement she was. It was a great night. My family travelled back home to Australia after a couple of hours of sleeping.

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  • Yasmine Fara Tisnohadi Dörr06/10/2015 - 5:23 am

    <3 <3 <3 My faves are the champagne (those bubbles! gasp!) and undeniably, the dancing scenes, particularly Ms. K and Papa...ReplyCancel

52 Portrait Project – 5/52

 

father and daughter over sunset

This father & daughter moment was captured from far away, using a 80-200mm lens lent to me by a dear friend. I’ve been watching my family playing with some cheap toys we just bought at the local bazaar at the outside lawn of the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. The sun was almost setting, though it still shone very brightly. These two weren’t even aware that I was following them with my lens. I love how the essence of fun and sweetness of that moment in the park was captured.

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the wild west

My children are at the enjoyable age to hang around with. Yes they fight sometimes, but they also love to play together. When they play, it’s so much fun to watch, or listen to. They are not always welcome spectators, let alone a spectator with a lens, but this one day, they didn’t mind me hovering around.

The scene was the Wild West. We just got back from a local fair where my son bought a Cowboys showbag. As soon as we got home he got dressed up as a sheriff (cowboy hats, the badge, gun holder, etc) , and created a story and played it out with his sister. We keep a lot of costumes at home, they love to play dress-up, so it’s quite enjoyable to watch them mix  and match old and new costumes to really get into characters.

the town's sherif

My son stayed the town’s sheriff the whole time, but my daughter moved from the sheriff’s deputy to the town’s worst bandit, and changed her outfit accordingly.

And Bruno the dog played the town’s drunk very very well. He was snoring, didn’t even move a muscle even with all the commotion around him.

the town's drunk

 

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