The Batblog by Photobat

It has been over a year since I first met Anthony and Amanda, at that time Amanda was quite pregnant and gave me a hand in updating my pregnancy folio. I have to say, both Anthony and Amanda are very special people, so friendly and I found myself staying a bit longer than normal for a chat at the end of the session. So now Ella is about and I have been back three times to photograph her so that we could put together an album showing her first 12 months. She is very very cute in both looks and in what she does, she is lucky to have such top parents who are completely in love and in awe of her!

 So below is the podcast that follows the Castray’s progress, from Pregnancy to just after Ella’s first birthday. It has been a preverlidge to spend time with this awesome family and I’m looking to catching up with them again soon, if only for a cup of tea!

 

 The Castrays [00:03:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

Cam and Rosemary are getting a couple of big life events out of the way in a short amount of time. They are expecting their baby any day now and have planned the naming day to coincide with their wedding. So thats going to be a big day and i’m really looking forward to it!So first up it was the pregnancy / engagement shoot. We decided on the seaport area as it is where Cam proposed. So we went on a little walk, which apparently is quite a big walk when you are expecting.

Cam re enacting a famous scene from Alien

And the final shot that says it all, pregnant and engaged! I can’t wait to meet the little one and I know it won’t be long till I do. Thanks again for the really fun shoot and see you again soon.

A few months ago we went off and shot Nicolette’s pregnancy session at her place, we got a few quite different shots.

And then a couple of weeks ago it was time to go and meet little Ava, who did alot of cute and not so cute baby things.

She’s a little bit angellic.

She kept playing with the white sheet we had set up for a background, and alot of the time made it so it was covering her face.! Makes me think she’s not going to like having her photo taken!

The cute looks and little baby noises and turned into some not so happy baby noises and the signaled the end of the session, but an over the shoulder shot calmed her down for that last shot.

Way back in April Rob and Susan were expecting an arrival. So I went out to take some photos. I had heard stories about Rob’s childhood feline companion Arnie, so had to get him in a few shots.

After doing a pregnancy shoot for Susan and Rob we waited for little Max to show up so we could do a newborn shoot… we waited… he waited… we waited… he waited… and finally he decided to show his face well after he was supposed to. Max arrived the day before my wedding so we had to wait until he was a little older to do shoot. I’m sure you will agree it was worth the wait. He was a great little guy to photograph, pity about the dad (just kidding Rob!!)

The shoot ended with a very loud example of Max’s lungs. But by the time we got there we had the all the shots. I even got another one of Arnie!

Thanks again for letting us come and share some time you and your little boy! Also, help feed max by buying ,lots and lots of jewelry from Jim Hughes and Sons, Rob and Susan’s business. It’s where we got our rings from and ever one loves them!

Late last year I had the opportunity to head down to Howden to shoots some photos of Denise, Harko, the baby bump and the horse. I had never had such a large prop for a photo (the horse… not the bump!). It was quite nice to be in a field in such a beautiful part of Tasmania I hadn’t been to before. Plus I had never shot a pregnancy shoot with a horse before, he was very well behaved too.

It was interesting having a chat with Harko too, he’s a scientist working on saving the Tasmanian Devils from their facial tumor disease. It was fascinating to hear what what happening and sad to hear about the creature’s bleak looking future.

Skip forward and we welcomed little Niham to the family! Such a nice little baby and very well behaved. We didn’t even notice her when we arrived, she was a sleep on the couch.

I always love a good hand shot and can never get enough of baby expressions!

When I showed the photos to Denise and Harko, Harko was about to go back into the field and be part of a group setting up social networking for devils… Yes that’s right, the Tasmanian Devil population has their own myspace!

I caught up with the griffins last year when Melita and Paul were brewing a little sister for Vaughan. It was supposed to be a pregnancy shoot but that turned into an after thought as we got lots of photos of Vaughan playing and showing all his personality.

 He was a little shy at first but by the end of the shoot was showing me all his toys.

Flash forward to and little Ava is now around and full of wonderfully cute baby expressions and being loved by his mum, dad and brother.

Such a cute family, it was heaps of fun photographing them.

I took a few photos in 2007, in fact, I took a few thousand.I always have loved showing off my work and am very proud of the way my images have developed in the last 12 months. So it’s time to show you all my favourite shots in an audio visual presentation. This is only on for one afternoon only, and not an exhibition that is hanging on the walls, so this is your only chance to see it.

Some of the highlights will include documentary work on the East Coast bushfires and backstage at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala, Holga images, urban and natural landscapes plus heaps of kids,families, pregnant bellies, animals and shoes.

In addition there will be a presentation of some of my favourite portraits of the week taken over the last 5 years. The POW started as a way of practicing and pushing myself by taking a different portrait each week. Some of these portraits are commissioned; others are self commissioned and feature comedians, musicians, brides, animals, fictional characters, photographers and everyday people I have bumped into.

The presentations will take about 30 minutes.

2pm February 10th 2007
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
Inveresk, Launceston

Entry is Free and there will be prizes!

Please RSVP here as we have limited seating available andmay have to reschedule more viewings.

PLUS FESTIVALE IS ON, SO YOU HOBART PEOPLE SHOULD COME UP FOR A DRIVE!!!

when I did my mail out asking for pregnant people I was really happy when Nichole got in touch. I shot Nicholle and Brett’s wedding a couple of years back and had a really fantastic time.

So now it was baby bump time and we had some fantastic skies and light to play with.

They are also in the middle of renovating, so lots of things on the go.

Thomas has arrived and I took photos of him the other day. I’ll post the thank you card photos once they have gone out, they are going to be very funny!

Karina was one of the first people to contact me when I did my call out for soon to be mums. You may remember this shot I took at the Show earlier this year.
To give you a little update Jeremy is now an Alderman and Karina is just about to pop, so very exciting and busy times.

I don’t know if Karina really was getting herself into, the bedroom shots were a great start but then it was out to the street with only a sheet. I believe we managed to scare a few neighbours.

And how could we not take some with the new Alderman, Jeremy arrived part way through the session and we all walked up into the start of the Gorge for some appropriate shots in the bush.

And as usual, here are the furry family members as it is at the moment with Molly and Oscar the dogs and Denzel the black cat with attitude.