im off on a 3 annies adventure to hong kong and china… lots of leather camera bag goodness coming your way people!

after china, next stop sydney to photograph one of my favourite clients bubbas christenings!

are you in Sydney on friday, 7th of June?  hailey bartholomew {aka ~ you cant be serious} and i are having a long lunch/mentoring session for 5 people!

two photographers {rowe t + hailey b} mentoring 5 people for 5hrs… we are offering our first ever 2/5 session…
we will chat about our work and our personal projects… how we got started in the industry and where we are headed but mostly this is a lunch date all about you… about your business and what direction you want to go! is there anything you want to know? you can honestly ask us anything! we really just want to help and have loads of fun doing it!

email or message me if you are interested in finding out more details.

here is a photo taken on our journey to school recently from our car… i heart bali! rowe x

p.s. you can still contact me via email and i will be working on galleries and orders while im away so its kind of business as usual except in a new and exciting place!

its time for another 10 on 10 post… but first, i have so much news i must share! so much is going on right now!

first up… i will be in sydney shooting again in less than a month ~ i cant believe how quickly this trip has come around! i feel like i was just there!

im excited to announce i will take 3 more family sessions but that is all so email me asap if you want me to shoot your kiddos!

these are the times i have available ~

friday 7th june | morning or afternoon

saturday 8th june | morning or afternoon

have you heard of the what if conference? i havent been to one before but i have heard from more than a few friends who have, how amazing they are! so you can imagine my excitement when i got a message on FB from one of the creators, jen bebb, about bali as a possible location for a conference in august 2013! after a few messages back and forth… the location is decided and the dates have been announced! read more about it here.

are you coming? why dont you come so we can hang out… its going to be all kinds of fun!

if that wasnt enough excitement for one month… i got an email from the amazing, ever so talented deb schwedhelm a couple of weeks ago! she wrote me to say how awesome and inspiring it was to read my 10 on 10 post about our move to bali for the adventure of a lifetime! we messaged back and forth and a few days later, it was decided that deb will come here to bali and i will host the most fabulous and fun workshop for her! nope… im not joking… august is honestly going to be the best month ever i think!!!

on a side note… some of you probably know deb and i talked last year about me hosting a workshop in australia. it never ended up going ahead for one reason or another. all i can think is, everything happens for a reason and how amazing to have that not happen then and be able to have a workshop here instead… bali is the best location for a workshop… its going to awesome!!!

DEB SCHWEDHELM BALI WORKSHOP

DATES: august 12th – 15th
LOCATION : villa sayang d’amour, bali
CLASS SIZE: limited to 10 photographers

registration is now open… to get more info and email deb to secure your spot see this blog post.

notice it is just a couple of days after the what if conference? how amazing to come to bali to hear inspiring people speak there and then spend 3 days in a beautiful villa with us! even if you are just dreaming about it… email deb so you can find out more! im pretty damn excited!

lastly… i have been getting christmas enquiries the last few weeks! that seems insane to me but clients are wondering if they dont book in for my june session, when will i be home shooting again! i need to make sure there is enough time after the shoots to get galleries up, for clients to get their orders finalised, for me to edit the images and send them to the lab or framer so they are shipped and on your doors early december! at this stage i will be offering sessions in september and then wont be returning to australia till 2014. weekend sessions are very limited because i already have a couple of bookings.

GOLD COAST

sunday 15th september | morning and afternoon

monday 16th september | morning and afternoon

SYDNEY

friday 20th september | morning and afternoon

saturday 21st september | morning and afternoon

sunday 22nd september | morning and afternoon

now for my photos… it was a fairly ordinary day here in bali! actually, i had all these grand plans to make my 10 on 10 special. we were having dinner at a cliff top restaurant and we would walk around to the temple in the ocean. the light would be all pretty and dreamy and we would explore somewhere we had not yet been. in the end, the day went pear shaped and this is what i got instead…

life as it is most days in the timson house, except these were taken over 2 days… the first half were taken on the morning of tuesday 7th and the second half were taken on the afternoon of wednesday 8th. this is my first 10 on 10 where not all images were taken on the same day but i figured i didnt want to miss a month so this would just have to do! im going to make a coffee table book of our year and im almost there cause i have been doing this project now since august. i LOVE it so much!

7.20am ~ morning light

7.25am ~ scrambled eggs {she is laughing cause she threw some at my head!}

7.30am ~ audrey says ‘no more photos’

7.32am ~ bye bye

8am ~ morning juice preperation

a few minutes later ~ drinking juice and answering emails

11.46am ~ groceries delivered from bali buda

{they made audrey bread and i love that it comes in a bag handmade with newspaper addressed to ‘rowina’}

1pm ~ blackout {cant work so decide to swim instead}

no 10 on 10 is complete without a self portrait of two! danny was laughing at me trying to take a photo of myself reading… clearly i wasnt able to read and take a photo at the same time… he made me feel rather silly!

4.46pm ~ meeting a new friend at motel mexicola | seminyak

my new favourite spot! the food is fresh and tasty and they do a great caprioska served in a plastic cup… i love this place!

{note : deb schwedhelm workshop attendees ~ im think we might have a few drinks and a meal here!}

that was a long post… but you made it all the way to the bottom!

if you dont know, im part of a blogging circle! now stop by and visit the amazing ginger unzueta… i love how she captures lifes everyday moments in such a magical way!

rowe x

i planned to do a post about a fun filled day in sydney last week but at the very last minute, i decided to do something a little different this month… im sharing photos i took in just a few short moments outside our villa on monday 8th april ~ these were taken between 3.48pm and 3.52pm so just 4 mins to be exact! im sure you have all seen more than enough photos of audrey so this will be a refreshing change…

in bali, over the weekend everyone celebrated kuningan. this festival is held ten days after the galungan festival. sadly, we were away for both festivals because i had sessions to shoot at home in australia but here is a brief explanation on what its all about…

the galungan is one of Bali’s major festivals and the celebrations last for ten days! galungan day means earth day and on this day the Hindus thank the god for the creation of the earth and all it has to offer. during the galungan, the balinese believe that their ancestors descend to their former homes. balinese families will welcome their ancestors and entertain with prayers and offerings, along with ceremonies to cleanse and balance the inner and outer energy on the island. essentially this is the beginning of the week in which the gods and ancestors descend to earth and good triumphs over evil.

kuningan is celebrated 10 days after galungan and signifies the closing of the new year holiday.

because we werent here, im not sure how things were done exactly but when i arrived home saturday night i was so taken with the beauty… the entrance to every temple and home is decorated with umbul-umbul ~ a long colorful flag on an overhanging bamboo pole. the umbul-umbul reach high into the sky and it is truly such a beautiful thing to see!

the balinese LOVE their festivals and ceremonies and i think it part of what makes bali such a magical place…

monday im sitting in my villa and i hear boys playing instruments in the street and singing. when i go out i see they are doing their own little barong dance complete with costumes they have made themselves!

i speak very little bahasa (im limited to basic greetings but we are starting lessons next week so i can improve on that) and the children spoke no english but they were able to say ‘money’ with hands outstretched and i was more than happy to pay them!

my pembantu (cleaner) came out and asked them if i could take their photo and they were so incredibly excited! whenever i turned my camera on one of them they would be delighted and they LOVED to see the photos on the screen! i wish audrey greeted photos with the same enthusiasm but i know it comes from having very little exposure to cameras… the novelty of it is what makes it so appealing and audrey (like many of your kids) has had a camera in her face from the minute she arrived…

anyway, it seems i may have started something cause the very next day they were back playing 3 times as loud at my front gate and seeming like they would never leave! they are just so cute but im not sure danny will agree if this becomes a daily ritual… he actually went out surfing to escape!

thanks so much for stopping by! i hope you enjoyed that little peek into the bali culture!

now its time to go look at how summer murdock spent her day! i love her ability to turn the most ordinary event into something spectacular… this month its toilet training!

rowe xxx

{please note : all the photos in this post are taken with my iphone, then edited in camera+ or my new favourite app… afterglow}

it seems like all ive been posting the last couple of months are my 10 on 10 posts! ive been planning to do a post about our recent move to bali but it just hasnt happened… i decided this might be the perfect time for it! im sharing photos taken today and some taken over the last few weeks or so to tell our bali story!

1. fresh fruit from the school warung (also know as a tuckshop or canteen) | 2. welcome pebbles at uluwatu | 3. teaching us all bahasa | 4. i adore outdoor showers and morning sunlight | 5. monkey | 6. me by the pool today

first the why… both danny and i own our own businesses, which is great because it means one of us is always around to take audrey to school, to pick her up, to take her to piano, choir, her aerial or gymnastics class… she never comes home to an empty house which i love and she always has one of us to talk to or play with or just be with!

the downside is, our work days are long and i feel like im in the circus constantly trying to juggle everything without dropping the ball! sadly… we do drop the ball more often than we would like and there are times when audrey is literally talking to the side of my head because i have a gallery to get up, a portrait clients order to edit or a commercial job deadline fast approaching… we both work till midnight most nights and there are regular times when that stretches to 1am or 2am just so we can get on top of things… my time off is mostly spent running errands, cooking dinner, cleaning the house and wishing i had more free time to do yoga, watch a movie or hang out with family and friends!

then there is the taking turns aspect… we have this unspoken rule where whomever has the most work on can keep working while the other parent hangs out with audrey!  it means sometimes family time is not all 3 of us… its just 2 of us and im not ok with that! dont get me wrong… we make an effort to do something fun every weekend! all 3 of us might go rollerskating or ride our bikes or go to the beach or do a day trip to byron bay and we always go out for a couple of meals because i love not eating out {or perhaps its i hate cleaning}! we are lucky enough to go away often too and at those times, we do no work or if we do, its very little in comparison to our regular schedule… no matter how many trips away we manage or how much time we spend together it still just doesnt feel like enough… i always wish there was more time!

we spent christmas in bali in 2011 with dear friends and that was when it happened… the last 2 days i started talking about moving here! i started asking all the locals about the cost of things. i started looking at villas online… the idea was born and there was no going back! even once we were home and weeks had passed, i found myself dreaming of a life in bali… its all i could think about! when i kept talking about it and showing danny villas, it suddenly dawned on him that this was something i really wanted… one day he said ‘are we actually moving to bali’… my response was ‘i think we are!’.

we decided we would go for a year and live a quiet, more simple life.  we would do very little… just be together and enjoy one another. sleep more and lay in the sun. read more books. watch more movies… cook more meals and just. slow. down!

arriving in the peak of the wet season is not ideal as there were thousands of mosquitos… the villa we were renting was the balinese style we had always loved on our visits before, with everything being open except the bedroom so its essentially an outdoor kitchen and living area with just the roof above but no walls. so lovely but in reality it meant we often found ourselves huddled on the bed in the main bedroom under the mosquito net trying our hardest not to get bitten (insert newly arrived, irrational expats who were scared to death of getting dengue fever)!

then we had a problem with the water which meant we could rarely have showers when we wanted to and then when we did have water and we we jumped in, it was very likely it would stop right in the middle and i may or may not have gone out a couple of times with shampoo or conditioner still in my hair?

school was so much further than we would have liked and the drive was just horrid with so much congestion and extremely insanely narrow windy dirt roads for a good portion of it, you have no idea what a pot holes really is till you have seen a balinese one and there were more than one could count…

4 weeks in and 100 villas later it felt like we were never going to find somewhere to live either because nothing was right…

the worse thing by far was audrey got extremely sick 9 days in and we ended up in hospital really wondering if we had done the right thing moving here… needless to say she is fine and in fact, if we had not arrived so recently, im pretty sure the doctor would not have sent us to the hospital. they were just being super cautious which i am extremely thankful for {it ended up just being a really bad case of bali belly}! although it wasnt ideal timing and i would have preferred it if danny or i had been sick, it was in the end a positive experience because my worst fear about living here was realised and audrey didnt die like she told me she thought she might that very first day she was sick… we all survived and in actual fact, the hospital experience was a good one! it was clean and we were really well cared for and everyone spoke excellent english!

are you still reading? if so, it must be time for a few more instagram photos!

5. butter cake shop (where one purchases the best iced cinnamon scrolls ever… how i wish i had never discovered them!) | 6. going home

well this week marks 2 months since we arrived and things have changed… a few weeks ago we moved into our very own villa which we like a lot! we found a full time driver which means that we can now just sit and relax on a very manageable 30 minute journey to school (there is lots of chit chat on that drive which i love!). a week after we moved in we had 6 boxes arrive from australia that my mum so brilliantly packed for us over a very long skype session in the week hours of the morning {thanks mum}… they included the things i realised we just couldnt live without… things that would make it feel more like home (eg. organic sheets and the perfect pillow, juicer, blender, all my ceramic pots and pans and lots of other kitchen stuff. loads of remedies in case of any illnesses. natural products like shampoo, conditioner, suncream and laundry powder. audreys favourite things. the wii console etc, etc…). i cant tell you what a difference it makes being surrounded by things that are familiar… when those boxes arrived everyone seemed so much happier and a sense of calm washed over the house!

if you asked us last month if we were happy here and if we thought we would last the year, i just may have said no! if you ask me now id say we will last the year and perhaps a little longer because everyday we feel just a little more settled! we still have tough days where i just miss my gorgeous cat tilly beyond words… or i just want to go to my favourite cafe or prepare one of our favourite meals… where i just want to hang out with an old friend who makes me laugh like no new friend can but i just remind myself its only early days!

in the very beginning its easy to only see the negative, all the obstacles that are in your way! sometimes there are so many that it leaves very little room for seeing the good stuff… as time goes on and you find a little rhythm and you stop expecting things to be as they always were, you start to see the beauty in this new life! actually, danny and i were driving somewhere and i commented on how beautiful the landscape out the window was… he said all her saw was the rubbish! to that i said ‘but look up. just look up a little, above the rubbish… how beautiful is it!’. i just said it without thinking but after i thought… sometimes we have to look a little harder to see the beauty. it is always there but you need to be open and ready to see it!

well thats it. we are here. we are together. we are happy {most of the time}. what more could we ask for? i think when we are older, we will be pleased we were brave enough to embark on such a huge adventure and these moments are the ones we will cherish…

here are some photos of our day today {all taken on my iphone and edited on there too} ~ a peek at our little villa!

if you made it to the bottom of the page… im impressed! i didnt realise i had so much to say till i started writing! this is possibly the longest post ive ever written… thanks for taking the time to stay and read it!

actually, if you are new here and you find yourself wanting more {perhaps you want to see photos from my real camera?}… my february 10 on 10 was photographed one day last month in singapore or if you are keen to see more of bali, see my january post which was photographed just a few days after we arrived! in december i shared images taken while we were on holidays in new zealand.

now go visit marie manco’s to take a peek at her day and be sure to keep following the links till you come back to me! you will see some beautiful images from some amazingly talented girls from all over the place! i love my 10 on 10 circle of friends…

happy sunday friends, rowe x

a couple of days ago marked the 1 month anniversary of our move to bali! i must admit, some days we have been so homesick that it feels like we have been away much longer than just a month! actually… i should clarify that danny and i seem to be suffering most in the missing home department cause audrey has just settled in so beautifully at her new school and she couldnt be happier!

finding a house was far more challenging than we thought and this time last week i was panicked that it just might never happen… i swear we must have looked at about 100 villas! anyway, we moved into our own little villa on friday and we just love it! its so open and airy and really feels like we are on vacation but its a vacation thats going to last a whole year… yay… how lucky are we!

this month im sharing photos from a day in singapore.

we went for 3 days and oh my… how i love singapore! we swam, we shopped and we ate… how could i not love every moment of that! the highlight was definitely the food… every meal was honestly a taste sensation!

on this day we went to universal studios which was fun!

9.36am | taking the bus {family self portrait time – far from perfect but i love them all the same}

10am | waiting on the entry line

11.48am | audrey lu is in charge of the map

12.05pm | sweet shop 

2.02pm | waiting on another que

5.47pm | yummiest gelato ever {lemon + pomegranate served in a real lemon} 

7.51pm | orchard road

now go check out jackie tyghem‘s post full of sugar sweetness and park fun! be sure to keep clicking till you come back to me eventually but grab yourself a cup of tea and something yummy first cause it may take a while… so many talented photographers in our little group!

hugs friends, rowe xxx

its honestly been crazy since the last time i blogged… ive packed an entire house, celebrated christmas and new year, then moved to bali for a year long family adventure! anybody who reads the blog probably knows a little about our bali plans but i have so much to say that its probably best saved for another blog post on another day!

until then, just know, i will still be shooting on a regular basis in australia! in fact my next sydney trip is scheduled for the last week in march and i may be able to squeeze in a few sessions in the byron / gold coast / brisbane area too… i promise ill blog about all of that in the next week or two, once we have a home and im all settled in here.

for now let me share another 10 on 10…

this month ill be doing something a little different… i often link to a few friends who are also doing 10 on 10 projects but this year ive been invited to join a group of amazing and inspiring photographers doing there own 10 on 10s! what does that mean? each month i will link to another photographer who links to another etc, etc, to form a little circle or loveliness!

these images are from audreys very first day at her new school! orientation day…

i think the school is all kinds of awesome and im so excited that i got to capture just a little of its magic for you to see!

8.40 am ~ our journey to school begins {on a normal day we will leave home at 7.20am}

{danny must carry audrey because she is scared of a few dogs we pass in the little lane way from our villa to the street}

8.52 am ~ the busy city

im so thankful to have a driver who knows where to go because im sure it would take forever if the driving was left up to us… so much traffic {bikes mostly} and very few street signs!

8.56 am ~ thank goodness santa got someone an ipad mini for christmas!

9.26 am ~ we reach the jungle {the last few minutes of our journey before we arrive at school}

10am ~ summer toes11.25am ~ feeding the goats

11.48am ~ the ayung river runs through the school campus

12.29pm ~ lunch

{audrey could actually eat loads on the menu so she was so happy! how amazing are the banana leaf baskets for plates…}

2.19pm ~ home made banana chips for afternoon tea from the school warung3.27pm ~ a chat with a new friend on our first bali play date {how kind to be invited to play at someones house on our very first day at school!}4.32pm ~ an afternoon swim

so thats our day in a nutshell! i didnt show you as much of the school as i would have liked but there will be plenty of time to share more images in the coming months!

now you must go and check out Jackie Tyghem’s day and be sure to keep clicking so you see everyones posts before you come back to me…

thanks, rowe x

im so sorry im posting this late… its such a crazy time for me with client orders that need to be delivered prior to xmas and the chaos of packing our house up in preparation for our year long overseas adventure in bali which is fast approaching! there were also so many i loved and i just wanted to include them all! im just so pleased im photographing my family and friends every month, even if im breaking a few rules here and there…

anyway, im super excited to be sharing photos today from our recent holiday in nz! i knew before we left that i would choose one day to photograph our adventures for my project 10 this month.

for those of you who dont know, my mum married a kiwi when i was a teenager and i spent most of my teens there. nz is like my second home… its a place that makes my heart happy!

i moved back to sydney when i was 19 years old and during my early 20s, i visited every year at least once, some years more frequently so i really could not believe that in audreys 9 years of life she had not yet visited when it is so near! with our huge move to bali fast approaching it made my need to visit more intense so i made it happen, even if the timing wasnt ideal. i just wanted to have a few days away from the pre-christmas chaos and it was oh so lovely…

it was a time to see old friends. to spend with family. to eat and be merry… to explore places long forgotten ~ we even drove past my old house! it was colder than i imagined it would be but every bit as beautiful as i remembered!

i dream of moving back there one day, even if just for a short while! one day soon it just might happen…

9.53am ~ a morning with my dear friend, christine and her sweet boy, alfie.

10.58am ~ visiting the auckland art gallery to see the ‘who shot rock & roll‘ photography exhibition

4.05pm ~ play time on the stairs and no 10 on 10 is complete without a self portrait!

6.22pm ~ somewhere on the road between auckland and new plymouth

now to share links of a couple of friends who are also doing 10 on 10 projects ~

kirsty larmour | el hogan

and a couple of photographers i dont know but who’s personal work i love ~

amy grace from a beautiful life photo | amy lucy photography

hugs, rowe xxx

i spent a cold and chilly morning with saxon in centennial park!

we blew bubbles, threw balls, rode a radio flier and fed the ducks by the pond…

it was a perfect way to capture this boys gorgeous spirit!

dont you adore that little outfit? the hat kills me!

oh boy… another late 10 on 10 post! i shot it saturday but with so much client work to get through i just havent had a minute to download them and choose some favourties to edit and share! im not so good at following rules so for now, im just happy to have taken the time to photograph us…

if this is your first time here and you want to know more about the project see my very first 10 on 10 post!

i must confess it was a fairly boring kind of day… cold and rainy outside and no exciting adventures planned but thats the whole point isnt it? just little moments in our everyday real lives…

8.15am ~ weekend morning tv {she loves jessie, austin + ali, ant farm and icarly}

9.02am ~ making banana pancakes

10.45am ~ hot chocolate and banana bread for me… fresh juice for audrey lu!

dress ~ polka | felt flower hair clip ~ pinwheels and pearls

3.08pm ~ a little break from packing at a park where we found the most amazing tree house!

dress ~ zara | mary janes ~ chilli kids | bag ~ colette

audrey took a couple of photos of me with my 3 annies camera bag for nanna!

4.10pm ~ book madness! i think i might be addicted to purchasing books for lulu…

cleaning up my computer i stumbled across this session from my melbourne trip in april.

these guys were honestly the most fun ever… so much spirit and love in their photos!

i planned to blog it forever ago but we all know im a terrible blogger…

anyway, thanks so much rowena, dean and erin for hanging out with me for the afternoon!

hope you adore the images as much as i do xxx