Newborn, Baby and Wedding Photography in Melbourne :: Kristen Cook | Blog

The gorgeously talented Kris Leigh tagged me in her blog the other day (thanks Kris!) so I get to play another round of blog tag with some new stuff to learn about me:

1. Ten years ago… I was in my first year uni at the University of Melbourne, and I was living in Port Melbourne. I had met my husband-to-be that year and bought my first car – a red Ford Festiva, which turned out to be the biggest ‘bad luck’ magnet I’ve ever owned. Safe to say that beauty is now in car heaven…
2. 5 things on my to do list… Proofing, proofing, proofing, proofing and proofing. LOL Alright, well maybe proofing, take some photos of Mia, clean up my study, get my tax stuff together so I can go and see my accountant and reorganise my work calendar.
3. Snacks I enjoy… this is a hard one for me! I like a lot!! I do have to say though that freshly baked cinnamon doughnuts that are still hot are pretty hard to beat.
4. If I were a millionaire… I hate this question because I always change my mind. But right NOW, I’d pay off the house, move somewhere with a great natural light studio central to Melbourne (or somewhere where I have space to build one at least), invest some of it (for a rainy day!), book a trip to Canada to visit Kerianne and to the US to see Raye, make a trip to the UK to visit my ever increasing list of friends that all seem to move away from me to there (hmm… it’s a worrying trend!!), upgrade all of my gear, drive an eco-friendly car (I agree Kris!) and get an admin helper so that I can palm all of the boring admin stuff onto them so I can spend more time with my family Oh oh… and go on a holiday with my family – somewhere expensive just because I could!
5. Places I’ve lived… Melbourne and Brisbane

I’ve just tagged some people last time so I will try and tag only a couple of people this time that I didn’t tag earlier (and who hopefully haven’t been tagged yet or in a while!): the wonderfully talented Lana and my lovely room buddy for the Jinky workshop Nicole

Looks like I’ve been tagged by Angela Higgins! For those unfamiliar with the concept, it’s like an internet version of chain letters (only a lot more fun!) – someone ‘tags’ your blog, you tag them back as well as 5 other people while also revealing intimate details about your life (well, not quite, but hopefully they’re interesting enough!)

So, here’s how it goes:

• Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
• Share 5 things other people may not know about you (other version is naming songs you’re embarrassed to admit you like, but there would be far too many of those LOL).
• Tag 5 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
• Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So… my five things (in no particular order) are:

1. I have an unhealthy obsession with my emails – the more I get, the more I start to panic when it’s been 5 minutes and I haven’t received a new one. Honestly, I receive so many emails in one day my husband finds it hard to believe that when I’m out and come home that I have 20+ emails sitting there waiting for responses. I have forbidden myself to buy a Blackberry as that would only increase my dependency on my email for sure. It’s a sickness, really!
2. I was a lawyer in my former life (pre-Mia days!). As my family love to remind me – I spent six years at uni, graduated with honours, spent three and a half years working in the profession to now sit here with my baby and play with my camera. People keep asking me if I miss it and for the moment, not in the slightest. I miss the law, but I certainly don’t miss being a lawyer. I work longer and harder now as a full time mum as well than I ever did as a lawyer, but you cannot beat the personal rewards and job satisfaction!
3. I’m actually quite shy, which would be a surprise to a lot of people. Yep, I was a lawyer – at school, I was the one in the school plays, I would sing in concerts, I was in the debating team and yet, I’m certainly no extrovert. My idea of a good time is to be lying on the couch, in my trackies, eating cookies and cream icecream straight from the tub, while watching episodes of Friends. Life doesn’t get any better than that!
4. My nose is scary – it has no bones in it. Well, it does, I’m sure somewhere, but I can literally press the bridge of my nose down so it’s almost flat against my face. It’s disgusting really. It was the best party trick at school though and for some reason everyone found it hilarious. Speaking of which, I haven’t actually done it in years now… I wonder if I still can?….. yep…. I can!
5. I’m a major sook. No, really – I am. MAJOR. I cry at the drop of a hat, anything will get the waterworks going (oh, the last time was when I watching that damn Worksafe ad yesterday where the father walks into his little girl’s school play just in time to see her on stage, and he gives her that reassuring look and she smiles back….!! AHHHHHHHHHHH – kills me EVERY time!). I had to watch “The Notebook”  five times because every time I watched it I was crying so hard that I would miss bits of it. I gush over everything – I’ve always been a major gusher. Babies, weddings, puppies… you name it, I gush! I suppose that’s a good thing really given what I do - I completely gush over my kidlets that I meet at every one of my sessions because they are all adorable. Every single one of them! And don’t even get me started on my own little princess… no, no, I can’t, cause the tears are starting already and I need to go to bed!

So, there’s five random things about me! Now, I’m going to go ahead and tag my gorgeous soul-sister Kerianne Brown, the incredibly amazing Raye Law, the lovely Penelope Smith, the wonderful Danielle Stahl and the beautiful Robyn Geering.

I’m a new proud parent!! My babies have arrived home!!!

{Excuse the poor excuse for product photography – it is not my forte! That, and I was too lazy to get my proper backdrops out…}

I spent over three hours driving yesterday to bring my babies home, but oh-so-worth-it. I left around 3pm and I figured my trip would take me just over an hour by my calculations. I was all set. I had David’s navigator to guide me on my way (because I’m terrible with directions) so it was going to be so easy (or so I thought). For some reason, the navigator decided that going through Essendon, Carlton, the CBD, past Crown Casino (WTF?!) was the best way to get to my destination rather than using the freeway. At first, I thought it was strange but put my trust in this wonderful piece of technology to get there safely. By the time I had finally reached the CBD after taking this ridiculous roundabout route I was directed to take I had already been driving for an hour. I’d had enough by this stage so jumped onto the nearest Citylink tollway I could find which I knew went in the general direction I wanted to go.

The navigator didn’t like that of course and kept trying to have me exit off the tollway. I finally changed some settings and it seemed to like that ok, and told me to keep driving for 20+ kms down the freeway until I was supposed to exit. Of course, being the fateful day it was, the freeway traffic was horrible, and I mean HORRIBLE. I was driving at 20kph for most of the journey. I realised after a while that the navigator was being very silent and that’s when I looked down and saw the bloody thing had run out of power! Now I was stuck in a traffic jam, on a freeway I never travel, going to a place I’d never been to, and had no idea where I was supposed to exit. And where was the car charger you ask?? In David’s bag at home of course… where else would it be?!

I finally picked a random exit and got the good old street directory out (sooo last year darling…) and finally worked out a fairly straight way to get where I wanted to be. Finally, around 2 hours after I started my journey, I had arrived – double the amount of time I thought it would take.

Doesn’t matter though, as now my brand spanking new gear is in my hands – my Canon 40D and my Canon 24-70L lens. Mmmmmmm!!!! David better watch out because I’m thinking of divorcing him so I can marry my new camera (especially after that charger fiasco… I was not a happy woman).

Batteries are charged, memory card is in, and it’s ready to go (now, how do I use it?? LOL)

And my oh-so-gorgeous lens…