We created photobooth photo strips for us all – one of each of us, and one of the girls together, one of me and T together and one of all of us and then I put them together into a photo collage!

The girls really didn’t quite understand the concept of a photo booth!! We just don’t have them here – if you want your passport pics doing in Abu Dhai you go to a photo studio!! I let each of us have only 6 photos (I know it’s usually only 4 but I had to give the kids a chance!!) the only stipulation being 1 had to be a nice one, and the others could be as goofy and funny as they liked! We then downloaded them and chose 4 for each strip and put them together in photoshop – we used these photostrip overlays (they work in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements) and put them all together. If you don’t have photoshop you could easily do it as a collage project, making a photostrip frame from black card and sticking the individual photos in. (Edited to add: the day after I published this post I spotted this photobooth website on Pinterest - another great alternative to making collages if you don’t have Photoshop!)

Here’s the final version…..

I printed the page up as a 12 x 16 and popped it into a nice simple Ikea frame – and hung it on one of our photo walls – voila! It makes me smile every time I walk by it

Have fun… Kirsty xx

PS For some more fun photo projects see my Instax Heart Project and the Christmas Glitter fun we had

We visited a Hindu temple in Chennai, and the girls loved the colours and the statues of the Gods, and the space, and the fact that there were lots of cows hanging around….

And I loved that Indy had chosen to wear this dress that she loves so much by Courtney Courtney… how fabulously does it go with the vibrancy of the temple? The painted mandalas on the floor were perfect for doing twirls in in Indy’s opinion!! I think she wore this dress nearly every day on holiday – although to be fair, she did change about 5 times every day!!! 

I keep saying more travel stories coming soon… the reality is the spinning plates of running a business and running a home and bringing up kids and doing the school run/parties/doctors visits/dancing classes etc etc means I rarely get around to editing pictures of my family, and my kids doing the things we love the most… my 2012 resolution is to stop work at a reasonable hour and to do more for us, to help preserve our family memories too, to edit pictures, just like these, of my sweetie pie, enthralled by somewhere we travelled to – so maybe, just maybe, you’ll get to see us in Cambodia, and Bangkok and on some of our other 2011 travels soon,

Kirsty xx

It’s been a year where I’ve been able to spread my creative wings and take on more editorial and commercial work – and more charity work to help causes important to me.  I’ve worked with truly incredible vendors who have trusted me to showcase their beautiful work.

It was a year where I’ve marvelled at the incredible importance of what I’m blessed enough to do, with photographs, in holding memories for families who have lost loved ones, seeing babies I photographed go off to school and I’ve felt humbled watching the strength of one of my families who are battling cancer with amazing grace.

I get to capture connections, I get to capture emotion, I get to capture precious moments in time, I get to capture realness…. I’ve shed tears, lost hair, lost sleep, not to mention lost my marbles a few times – but I’ve had so many smiles and so much laughter too – I pour my heart and soul into what I do and I can’t thank you all enough for your incredible support, and for opening up your homes and lives to me…

Enjoy some of my favourite moments….

Thank you for an incredible year – I can’t wait to see what 2012 brings….

with love, thanks and blessings and peace for 2012, Kirsty xxxx

Now I should enter a disclaimer that I do think I must be ever so slightly crazy to mix 2 kids, lots of glitter and 3 expensive DSLR cameras, so use your own judgement on this…..

First of all, take a sheet of card, sprinkle thinly, but across a wide area with glitter, sequins, sparkly shapes etc, etc…. let the kids choose their own – we did one each and then lined them up so we could take pictures of each others

For some simple and pretty bokeh fun and patterns just meter the camera yourself, or put on A mode with the lowest aperture your camera will go to – set it to the middle focus point and hand over for the kids to experiment…

The kids did really well – they loved playing, then using a paintbrush to rearrange their sparkles and taking again….

For some extra fun follow this tutorial on how to get shaped bokeh – we made a lens cover with a heart shape cut out and played some more – super extra pretty…..

They may not be the best most sparkly bokeh pictures ever but I think they’d look great printed for Christmas cards or gift tags – and the girls were so happy with their sparkly pictures.

Have fun…… Kirsty xx

Hope you’re all getting into the festive spirit, Kirsty xx

We use my instax camera – which is basically a modern day polaroid which produces instant pictures – kids love getting a picture in their hand within seconds of taking it!! Because we may move sometime we decided to use a large canvas to put the pictures on – stuck on with drawing pins.

Some pictures are wacky, us in moustaches or wigs, (lots of the girls with food on their faces!!) some of the girls striking their model poses, some just of them in pretty frocks before a party – whatever they are they’re fun pictures that make us smile! 

It’s set on a huge chair by our front door – it’s our dump it ground – where school bags, handbags, teddies, skipping ropes, colouring books, crayons, lunchboxes and all sorts of junk gets dumped every day – so we pass it lots – and we admire it lots… because after all isn’t that what creating pieces of art is about??? And I know it’s no Van Gough, or Ansel Adams, but it’s art for our family – and that’s what matters after all…..I totally encourage you to go do something similar, create your own piece of family art – no instax camera who cares???? if it’s just pics from your phone printed on your home printer, or a few holiday snaps printed at the local printers it just doesn’t matter – if it celebrates YOU and your family and YOUR fun then do it; create it; celebrate it; and smile at it lots!!!

If you’ve created something similar I’d LOVE to see – post me a link so I can check it out, Kirsty xx

I did my shooting for the project on Saturday – hubby works Saturdays so we always have a bit of a girlie day but usually along pretty similar lines each week – it starts with a long lie in before breakfast and getting ready for the girls various dancing classes….

After class we often head to the mall to do some errands – sometimes the girls twist my arm to have Starbucks for lunch, or maybe ice cream – this week Starbucks won… and there was a giveaway of Roald Dahl books at our favourite bookshop… Saturdays usually include some afternoon quiet time reading stories together so we headed home with their new books – yes, I persuaded them to get George’s Marvellous Medicine – it was my favourite as a kid!!

Afternoons are often spent making something healthy to go in the girls lunchboxes for the week… this week banana loaf… 

And then we tackle homework, if there’s any left to be done, and before we know it the day’s over and Daddy’s home

And all too quickly Saturday is over and we’re getting ready for school again on Sunday….. now head on over to see what Jennifer over in sunny Santa Barbara, California has been up to….

Until next month, Kirsty x

Petite sessions announced on Facebook on Thursday are filling up fast – if there’s enough interest I might schedule one more date too….

Kirsty x

I have a huge photography crush on derelict buildings right now – this one was just wonderful – abandoned verandas around the outside and funky tiling, not to mention overgrown vegetation starting to colonise – I love shoots like this….

I’m designing an album so I hope to show you some more of Indy’s shoot soon but for now here are a few that I finally got around to for my little sweetie pie

More soon, Kirsty x

For our shoot she was lucky enough to have this adorable dress donated by Lilipops Designs and headbands from Knots (go on over and like them on Facebook, and remember my clients can get money off for Lilipops too )- seriously, she couldn’t have been a better model.

Julia is also the lucky winner of my Face of Kirsty Larmour Photography contest so you’ll be seeing her soon up there at the top on my blog header and featuring on the intro page of my portfolio site.

There’s a funny story too – months and months ago I got an email from a lady saying she’d seen me out one evening with my girls and as she followed me on Facebook so she recognised the girls but felt to shy to come and say Hi to us – it turned out that she’s Julia’s mother – Abu Dhabi is so small!

Julia’s Mum also has an amazing sense of style – I told her the dress was lime green and fuschia flowers and Julia turned up in perfectly matching sandals, with green painted finer and toe nails AND the cutest ever pink flower earings – way to go on the fabulous coordination!!!

I could share pictures of Julia all day long, seriously…. but these are just a few for now….

Julia, thank you for being such a wonderful model and being such a deserving winner, with love, Kirsty, and Saffy (who came along to be my assistant for the shoot!) xx