Posted on May 11, 2011
It’s been a bit quiet on the blog, but it’s certainly not because I am not busy, just the opposite. I am trying my best to work through a ton of edits, designs, order preparation and have a few sessions also waiting for proofs. I work down the to do list one at a time and we are getting there, so bear with us.
More fun things that have been keeping us busy is Mother’s day and Bianca’s birthday. For mother’s day we went to her school and she gave me a mani and pedi cure. She loves colours and therefore chose three different colours to paint my nails with. The whole week last week she kept asking what my favourtie colour was and of course I answered blue. I love blue, even got married in blue. But how was I to know she asked because she plans to paint my nails with it? Luckily I did get to choose whether I want the blue on my hands or toe nails. So I am now sporting some really shockingly blue toenails! For the hands she decided to paint one hand pink and the other purple. It looks weird, but this mommy is proudly walking around in her manicured and pedicured state. I promised for 6 days since she is 6!
Yesterday we had another fun event, she turned 6. We had so much fun. She was terribly sick the day before and turned out its her ears so we tried as best we could to keep her ears out the water. Whether it worked we will know later but for now she sure had fun. She says 6 is her very best favourite number (at least for now). As we walked back to the car she asked “Mommy how many days until my next birthday?” I just laughed. Kids give us so much fun and laughter, how can one do anything but just adore them!
Here is the birthday girl with the evidence of a chocolate mousse cake that definitely did not survive the party.
Brunilda Monnig Photography
www.brunilda.me
copyright 2011
Download, copy, crop, alter or print of any images not allowed
Posted on April 9, 2011
I haven’t posted about my little darlings in quite some time. The last few weeks have been all work and no play I’m afraid. This week the new website went life, I built on new functionality into Facebook, had several brochures and stuff printed and had a few sessions, loads of orders. I am still busy doing the edits of last week’s sessions but thought we all needed a break. We headed to the water park on the corniche.
I don’t take the camera along most of the time when we go out and about, relaxing with the kids instead. For a change yesterday I thought I will get just a few, even one each and I would have been happy (just enough every now and again to remember them always as they grew up stage by stage, year by year).
I was standing on my knees, pants getting soaked while I took some impromptu photo’s. We laughed since our one girl went crazy full of fun underneath the water and the other moaned if even a drop got on her. She played with the little fountains but one dare not let water spray on her. So funny.
here is a quick collage of the few pics I took.
Posted on November 10, 2010
We did a little photowalk today. I am usually not into photographing anything that aren’t people:) I just get bored with it super super quickly. I can appreciate those images, in fact practically drool at some gorgeous images of dunes, of old antique items etc, but when I grab the camera and think I am going to also document the world and not just people, I struggle to keep my focus. I was interested to play a little though so took two different sets of images, several in HDR (those will follow later) and I also took some photos to make composit images of Abu Dhabi. I used photomerge to merge all the images and then in photoshop cleaned it all up. Certainly not perfect but a super fun project.
If you have done something likewise, please share your images on our facebook page, I’m sure others would love to see.
To see the images much bigger, just click on the thumbnails below.
[cincopa A0EA6VaoLV6T]
Posted on October 6, 2010
.
It was a week full of birthday’s beginning with my little one’s birthday last week, then Daddy had a birthday and our family has even been blessed with another baby this week too. I can’t wait to meet him. He is the reason I am returning to South Africa for a visit next week.
This week end I decided to spend some bonding time with my two outside. The weather really are so gorgeous come 4pm or so these days so we headed out at about 4h30 when sleepy head woke up. They loved it outside and loved playing in the dust and leaves (I don’t care about a little dirt if children can have fun in the process). My two is not always so in love of the camera so our “photo session” didn’t last too long. Then the camera was packed away and we just had fun. Good thing too we took pictures in the beginning because it was not ten minutes or Mommy was covered in sand all over! Nothing like hugs from a toddler, covered in sand…
Here is a little collage I made of our short session.
Posted on August 26, 2010
Every so often I remind myself I need updated photos of the children. It really takes me 5 minutes. i go to where they are playing, snap away. When they would let me I would comb their hair and sometimes like today I got to have Bianca dress in a special dress but that is about it. Those images add up and if you get only 2 images every few weeks, pretty soon you have enough stunning ones to make an unbelievable album.
I adore Erika’s eyelashes and have been meaning to get a shot of them. She is in that stage of her life where Mommy could do cartwheels and she will not look at me:) They go through that at about 2years old and it really is difficult to catch them as they truely are. Even for their own parents not just for stranger photographers:)
It suited me today as I wanted to have her look down. Its really a snapshot and I didnt even take time to clean her face. I adore this one though and it will surely be printed for some nook and cranny in our home:
I told Bianca today was snapshot day and I had taken a few pictures of Erika. She was not too keen but I told her we would take some of her sleeping buddy Mr “Botha” her teddybear too. I took several of only him, where Bianca “posed” him for me. It might look silly shooting a toy but he wasn’t even visible in most shots and I got her to consider letting me take her picture and the result is simply amazing. Some of her most beautiful ones of date. I will take pictures of childrens toys over and over again if that is waht gets them to open up. If they get to see the little image on the lcd screen their little faces just brightens up.
For Bianca I am actually going to make a storyboard with several images of her teddybear and herself for her room, as she has specifically requested a “block with lots of rounded pictures of me and Botha mom”. I just laughed and said sure thing. Amazed that my child is truely changing into a photographers child, knowing about pictures needing to be printed and even realising you can add them together to produce something interesting and arty.
Posted on August 12, 2010
Readers of my facebook photography page know this already since they are usually the first to know. If you’d like to join my facebook photography page just follow the facebook link at the top of the blog page.
I recently finished the designing of two coffee table books. Both going to my own Mom and Mother-In-Law. Fitting that they both have birthdays during this Ramadan and I get to give a deeply personal gift to each. For both I designed a 12inch by 12 inch book. They have hinged pages that lays flat. When they come in I will be sure to take some pictures.
The one book will have 50 sides (that is 25 pages) and have a photo cover while the other book will have a leather cover with 40 sides (20 pages).
I made little video’s that lay out the design. Have a look below (wording inside the book is Afrikaans,as that is our home language. I can put any wording you’d like in your books to make it more personal to you, even if I don’t have any idea what the words mean).
The first is very sentimental. For my Mom. The pictures in this book (except for one or two landscape and building pictures) were all taken during the 17 days she came to visit. It’s meant to show her how much we love her. It’s for her as a reminder of her visit, of Abu Dhabi. I am making one for us too since likewise it will be a book for the kids to remember the same visit and remember their bonding time with Grand mom since they do not spend much time together. I’ve been meaning to do something like this forever and this is the first. It made me just realise again how special photos can be and what we can do with them. I do plan to do this more often, at least once a year.
The second is a 80th birthday present for my Mother In Law. These are a collection of photos (mostly just the girls) that we held as our favorites. Some were in studio (although its clear posing didn’t go far) and some were out while at play. Photos stretch from about 6 months ago. Amazing how much they have grown.
Posted on August 1, 2010
It’s been a while since I’ve done the snapshot posts. But this snapshot is super special, my eldest lost her first tooth. Last week already I have just been too busy to come share. She’s so very proud of it.
Posted on June 29, 2010
Its not a Wedsnesday but I thought its time to share some snapshots again.
As many of you know for the next 2 weeks Grandma is the most important in this house. Its double, triple bonding time and the only time I edit will be during nap times. We’re also taking her for a quick break to Furjeirah. If you have galleries owing, remember I will reach you I am going down the list one by one. For orders and to extend galleries please contact me via email. I wont be able to do admin from Thursday to Saturday though as we are not available.
I will be doing a summer project that involves tons of photos of grandmom and the girls. Here is some snapshots taken yesterday during play at the park. This photo was taken through the fench:
While Bianca was playing tennis Erika enjoyed the water
Posted on May 22, 2010
Hi there, I have been quiet. I am catching up on backlog ( and thank goodness have achieved that!) and spending some time with my girls this week. I am not taking sessions really till 1 June as our nanny is on a well deserved vacation.
In this time I have been “away” from the blog I have done some private sessions that chose not to appear on the blog and I have also spend most of my time on processing orders, designing books etc. Hopefully soon I will have some produce pictures of the finished products.
But today, was my eldest’ ballet show. The place was so crowded that we had to climb on top of chairs and tables to get a look at our children. But strangely it added to the fun. I didn’t take many photos as it was very dark.
Here she is in her sunflower glory though.
I did take video too and I have wanted to learn to upload those to the site for some time, maybe this week I should learn how to.
Posted on May 9, 2010
Today is Mothers-day back home. We were invited to be at Bianca’s school for pedicures and snacks. It was a lovely little “party” and they sang us a love song, gave us paper flowers and bracelets.
Afterward we headed to the shops to gear up for Bianca’s birthday party tomorrow. I took some pictures I wanted to share on this day and hope to share maybe this evening. But first there is a hundred things to do. Including a private newborn session this evening.
Although I share most of my sessions on the blog I sometimes have private sessions where a family would rather keep their session private for whatever reason. That is completely doable and I am quite used to it.
So happy Mothers’ day to everyone. Hope you got spoiled rotten!
Posted on March 8, 2010
I asked Bianca some questions to see what she is all about. Pretty boring answers but here goes:
- Q: How many brothers and sisters do you have A: 3 brothers and 1 sister
- Q: What is your favourite thing to do? A: Building blocks (I assume playing with them, maybe because she does this with her sister)
- Q: What is your favourite food? A: chocolate (no shocker)
- Q: What is your favourite book? A: Princess book
- Q: What is your favourite song? A:Oh Canada (the anthem, who would have thought?)
- Q: What do you want to be when you grow up? A: A dinaosaur (t-rex) and an astronaut (that should be interesting)
- Q: How many kids do you want when you get married? A: 7 (Oh boy, what are we in for?)
- Q: What is your favourite thing about mom? A: She’s nice
- Q: What is your favourite thing about dad? A: He’s funny
- Q: What is your favourite thing about yourself? A: being good (hmmm must remind her of this one more often)
And by her request we added another Question:
What is your favourite colour? A: No shocker, its pink!
Posted on February 14, 2010
It’s that time of the year again where we get to be as quirky and gushy and sweet as we want to. All hearts and flowers and pinks and reds. I made these for the girls to hand out. For the 4year olds we have been punching holes in the corner and stringing ribbon through to make a necklase. They are so proud of their little cards!
Enjoy your valentine’s day!
Posted on February 8, 2010
.
My poor little one had a terrible week last week. Doctors told us it was a heavy allergic reaction, we still believe it was a virus. What ever it was it covered her little body in rashes. But luckily its gone now and hopefully the little scars will also disappear soon. She is much better and I couldnt help taking some snaps today. I wish I had planned it out more as these are just snaps. Maybe next week I could do a more planned out shoot with her.
Posted on January 4, 2010
Not many words today, just sharing some personal pictures while playing with my new background paper. Today is Bianca’s first ballet class after being away far too long from it.
“Hi mommy, I wanna pretend I am not even here, or you are not even here”
“And what will you be doing in your imagination then?”
“I think I am flying away”
“and I think I am sitting in Grandma’s arms and she is telling me a story”
Posted on December 30, 2009
.
I am going to try to show you on Wednesdays that snapshots can be super special as well. While on vacation I relaxed and took a ton of snaps. My personal little project was to take “memories” and about 7 great shots that I want to turn into a 7 canvas display in our hallway. Often times one tend to either want to take perfect pics and thereby stressing too much or only snaps, but there is a midway. Enjoy the picture taking process and capture those little beauties in our children!
Here is one of Erika. She is such a friendly little thing yet she is inquisitive and serious and usually in photographs only the serious face shows. Why I love this picture is that its the serious face but you can see the intent and somehow she looks serene as well.
She was sitting with her Grandma while having a coffee at a play area in South Africa. I love her eyelashes and so I took out the camera and was taking some detail pictures of her trying to capture the lashes. I zoomed out to capture her when she became so intent, trying to put a straw back into a juice bottle or something like that (exactly what escapes me now). I think this will be one of the small square canvases that makes it to my canvas display!
