Tag Archive for beauty

Almost 31: a reflection

May 21, 2015 in ramblings • 1 Comment

Tomorrow is my 31st birthday. Hip hip hooray! I’ve been thinking over the last week or so what this birthday means to me, and what the last year has brought for my life.

When I was in my early 20’s I’d see magazine articles saying that your 30’s are the best years of your life and so on. I used to think ‘pffft they are just reassuring themselves that they aren’t too old yet’. But you know what? It’s true. Turning 30 was no big stress for me. I don’t really think that your age has all that much to do with what you can fill your life with. But it was the start of an amazing year. We had only recently made our ‘tree change’ to the country so this year has been filled with all the adventures around that. We have made a new home for ourselves, planted an orchard, started growing our own vegies, are caring for goats (who are hopefully pregnant, fingers crossed!), sheep, chickens, getting ready to have a beehive, generally being more self sufficient. Our eldest daughter has started at school and it is going splendidly. This year, and being 30, has been about focusing on the important things. I suppose what is important to me has changed.

I discovered Taryn Brumfitt and the Body Image Movement during the last year. If you haven’t heard of it, please do yourself a favour and look her up. I don’t know if it’s turning 30 or something else, but I have ditched my negative mindframe about my body. I have been running (say what?!!) and seeing a personal trainer. And it’s not to lose weight, my focus is to be strong. I want to be fit and healthy for as long as possible so that I can continue enjoying my life and being here for my children. The size of my body and what it weighs is nothing to do with anything. If I can run around with my children, and swing them into my arms, and be here for them – that is what matters. I participated in my first ever City to Casino fun run, I walked most of the way but did run for a few short sections and am happy with the time it took me. I am sorting out my minor health issues. I have the most debilitating periods that leave me with low iron levels and wipe me out for at least 2 days a month and I have always just dealt with them, but I have realised that actually I don’t have to. I am looking forward to getting those under control!

My business has continued its journey to focus on mostly women’s beauty portraits. I love, love, love helping women see how beautiful they are. I am starting to spend more time on creative portraits as well – I think that working on personal projects helps me to find inspiration in all kinds of places which I can then use in my other work.

I’m pretty excited to see where the next year of being in my 30’s brings! But for now, I have some editing work calling my name 🙂

Rach x

Barbara – the Hope project

February 28, 2015 in personal project • 2 Comments

Barbara is terminally ill.

That’s such a horrible statement to hear, isn’t it? Hearing that kind of news about a loved one, an acquaintance, or someone you barely know – it’s always uncomfortable.

Recently when I was studying palliative care at Uni we covered a whole unit about hope. The simplified, basic message of the unit was: being close to dying does not mean the person has no hope, or feels hopeless.

Just let that sink in for a moment.

Even people at the end of life, with days to weeks left, are not necessarily feeling hopeless. They still have hope.

This struck such a deep chord with my soul that I knew straight away it was something I needed to explore.

How many times have you noticed people avoiding talking about the future with someone who is seriously ill? I’ve seen it a lot. I’ve also seen lots of friends of the unwell person pulling away, because they simply don’t know what to say and are so very scared of saying the wrong thing.

And I get that, truly I do. When my grandfather was dying I was working in a hospital ward not far from his. I visited him every day after work and we had some of the best conversations I ever had with him. And I am so glad that I had that time with him. There was no need for any kind of small talk, we just connected and talked about everything, as much as he could.

But I don’t remember specifically asking about his hopes, and what they were at that time.

I know he had a wish list of things he wanted to still be here for. The only ones I know of from the list were my graduation and my sister’s wedding, and sadly he didn’t make it to either of those.

But were they his hopes? Or were they something different? Do your hopes change when your future has become shorter? Do they have a different focus?

That is what this project is about for me. Discovering what hope means to someone who has a life limiting illness.

Thank you Barbara for welcoming me in to your beautiful home and being so open in your conversation with me. I am truly honoured to have spent that time with you, hearing your story.

Barbara is preparing an explanation of what hope means to her which I will add to this post when I can.

R x

Jaala

September 12, 2014 in Session preview • 0 Comments

I met with Jaala and Anita on an extremely chilly morning in the Derwent Valley. Jaala is more of a local to the area than me, and we found a lovely little quiet spot near the water to hold our session. I don’t normally make a habit of creating dresses in public toilets but on this particular morning it was the warmest option! I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look on the face of a lady who came in to use the loo and found three ladies in there, two of them in the middle of being dressed in evening gowns!

Jaala is such a classically beautiful woman, and very theatrical which was a bonus. I love the green tone of the dress which I made for her, it suits her perfectly, and with the glittering headpiece she was definitely a princess. Thank you for all the laughs Jaala, it was wonderful working with you.

I hope you enjoy the photos,

Rachel x

Chloe

September 1, 2014 in Session preview • 0 Comments

Beautiful Chloe, who braved a cool morning in the Derwent Valley for her portrait session. A mother of two, stepmum to one, wife, sister, daughter… Our session gave her a chance to just be Chloe. Calm, elegant, relaxed and simply gorgeous.

Quite by chance, one of the images we created has become the face of Rachel Baker Photography, and I feel it embodies just what I want you to feel when you have your portrait taken with me: serenity.

Enjoy these photos, and if you would like to see how they look printed and framed the images from the relaunch will be hanging at Sarah Muir Body Care in Moonah for another couple of weeks.

Rachel x