Annie Warren’s Photo Journal

These days I’m so busy with weddings and portrait sessions I hardly ever make time to take photos for myself, or more specifically of my kids. The only exception is Christmas and the boy’s birthdays, so with my eldest boy Eddie’s 7th birthday approaching I persuaded him into the studio one afternoon back in February. (Yes, I’ve been meaning to post this for about 2 months now. Did I mention how busy I am?)

There’s a little more to the story than that though, and it all started with me buying Kung Fu Panda and Karate Kid on DVD for the boys. Perry liked the movies, but for Eddie it was like a bolt from the blue! He BEGGED me for Karate lessons. My husband and I actually loved the idea, so we quickly joined him up at the Bendigo Training Academy. Right from the very first class Eddie was just rapt, and took me quite by surprise with his level of enthusiasm and dedication. Watching his little face during class just kills me! He is SO serious… his features set with intense concentration. Once I bought his Gi for him and he put it on, he was very keen to have his photograph taken. Of course this was a first, so I leapt at such a golden opportunity.

It’s such a thrill watching Ed’s second teeth coming through. He knocked out a front tooth when he was not quite 4, so we’ve been looking at that gap for a long time now. I always said it made him look like a hillbilly, though a very cute one. I think he’ll look amazing with a full set of beautiful new front teeth. 
My two little boys, Perry and Eddie. They are so beautiful… I can hardly breathe looking at these images. Perry lost interest after this brief cameo appearance, and left Ed and I alone.

I was amazed when I looked at these on the back of the camera. I had no idea that Eddie could kick so high! These images were taken after his second karate lesson, so he’s only a raw beginner. I know I’m biased (that’s my job…. hee hee) but his balance and flexibility are astounding. I wondered if I had him at the right kind of lessons… and if I should change his name to Eddie Elliot!
Eddie was having a ball doing these screaming  jumps for me. He did it over and over for half an hour until he was sweating and puffing. After EVERY one he ran over to look on the back of the camera. We’d zoom right in on his face, and collapse on the floor, howling with laughter at what we called his ‘effort face’. Snarling, grimacing, flared nostrils, tongue out to the side. Eddie decided he wanted one with a nice face, and took another run up. The last image (below) is the result of that attempt. The worst cheeseball grin I’ve ever seen! We both laughed until we were in pain. Every time I look at this image I’ll be reminded of that magic moment with my little boy… laughing so hard we nearly peed our pants! Brilliant!!!

I took this image very wide, and thought I’d post it that way for anyone who’s interested in seeing my lighting set-up. That’s an octabox at front left, and a grid at back right.

HOME

My eldest son Eddie had his 7th birthday recently, and with his new obsession with Karate there was never any doubt over the theme for his birthday party. My husband Mick and I put our thinking caps on, and made a plan to create a dojo in our living area. I took care of the paper lanterns, headbands, kid friendly chopsticks and birthday cake. Poor Mick had a roll of brown paper, some black poster paint and a printed out sheet of Kanje characters thrust at him, and was asked to create some oriental masterpieces. Ha! He did a brilliant job, though heaven only knows what he wrote on those banners! My sister is fluent in Japanese, so I must ask her to translate. Mick’s secretly hoping the translations are at least a little bit rude!

Our best attempt at a dojo.
The birthday cake. I wasn’t feeling up to attempting a dragon, so I settled on a Gi with a liquorish black belt. My Mum and sister said I should have put a head on it. Sheeeesh!
Ed was really pleased with his cake. He had 5 friends from school to help celebrate his birthday.A rare family photograph, taken by my sister, Sue. Now I’m wondering what I wrote on those headbands. I’ll ask my other sister….
The kids ate all their party food with the chopsticks that I had tied together with rubber bands. They thought it was great fun eating Cheezels and party pies with chopsticks.

One of the party games I dreamed up. I called this game ‘Harmony and Focus’…. inspired by Kung Fu Panda. I made them all sit cross legged with their eyes closed, and pretend to meditate. If they laughed… they were out! Then of course all the adults did everything they could to make the kids laugh. It was super funny watching them contort their little faces, trying not to laugh. Other games included throwing fried dim sims into china noodle bowls, catching tiny rice crackers in a bowl with chopsticks, and musical statues to “Kung Fu Fighting” and “Turning Japanese”. The party was brilliant. I wonder what we’ll do next year? I can’t wait!!

HOME

This made me really laugh, and was one of those times when I really didn’t appreciate the humour of what just happened until afterward.

I was photographing Brianna and Scott’s wedding recently, in a favourite alley in Bendigo. I decided to try something ‘cool’ and asked Scott to lean on the door and watch admiringly as his gorgeous new wife, Briannna, did a sexy strut past him. I slowed my shutter speed to a 40th of a second to catch some motion blur on Brianna, and asked them to ‘go for it’…..

Enter stage right, (totally unscripted) ….. friendly black and white pussycat, who for some reason best known to himself needed to get to the other end of the alley right at that very moment. I was concentrating so hard on keeping my camera steady without a tripod at a 40th of a second…. I didn’t even see him until the 3rd frame, when I urged Scott and Brianna to “keep going….”
Ha ha ha ha…. you can see Scott’s attention drift from very real admiration for his wife, to “what the?…. what’s with this cheeky cat?…” I just love the way puss actually strutted BETWEEN the bride and groom, looking forward the entire time, as though this sort of thing is totally commonplace to him…. Ho Hum! Well, maybe it is! It’s a great alley, and I can only imagine lots of Bendigo photographers take wedding parties in there. Looks like ‘puss’ is very non-plussed by weddings and photographers.

I will make a full post about Scott & Brianna’s wedding in the coming weeks. I just had to share this fun snippet from the day now!

.