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Carla Coulson, photography heirloom, portrait workshop, black and white photography, portraiture, family photography, wedding photography, puglia photography workshop, portrait workshop italy,

April 2, 2018

What Heirloom Will You leave Your Family?

Dear Folks,

Our beloved parents have heirlooms that they desperately want to pass onto us and wish and hope that we love them with the same passion they do.

My mum (love ya mum) wants me to love her corner cabinet with the wooden fretwork with the same passion she does and hopes that one day it will sit in the corner of my house or my brother or sisters and remind us of her.

She has already passed on her beautiful green deco sweet dishes that I treasure and use at every opportunity and the gift of fine coffee cups for her engagement that I use with love and joy.

But there is another treasure that is contained in a box that is the real heirloom that I love and treasure with passion of my family and all the people connected to it, it’s a box of photos.

photography, heirloom, family heirlooms, black and white photography, Carla Coulson

You see my memories of my family are vast and joyful. My parents created so many memories for us, picnics by rivers with our dog Jedda, scents of barbecue sausages and jumping off rocks into water, travelling to Magnetic island in the 80’s and being allowed to explore pristine beaches on our own. They took us on visits to my Aunty who had a horse named Ben and it was the first horse we ever sat upon and it was exciting beyond my imagination.

These memories and so many other stories of our ancestors have been captured in photos and cemented in my memory forever, this is my heirloom. For me it’s a treasure trove of who we are and where we came from. Sometimes I stare into these photos and I try and get to know a grandfather I never met or see my parents, young and beautiful, the way they were before we came along. I wonder about my Uncle and Aunt who travelled the world by sailing boat who meticulously documented this trip in a trip book along with numbered slides.

photography, heirloom, family heirlooms, black and white photography, Carla Coulson

I had an Aunty and an Uncle (not by blood but an Uncle all the same) who loved photography and they contributed to so many of these memories with their camera, eye and heart. They photographed me on my ‘maiden flight’ with my big sister, on Ben the horse and us in the backyard playing together.

When I started taking photos I turned my camera on my own family and those small moments with my nieces and nephews at the pool, in the backyard, messing around and playing like kids do, I took photos of my brothers and sisters and my parents. They allowed me to fall in love with taking photos of people and it is THIS heirloom that I want to leave them.

Each of us value something different, I am a sentimental fool and even though I don’t have children of my own I like to think my family extends beyond blood. That I can take pictures and leave a heirloom for others that too may pick up a photo one day and ask the question ‘who is that girl’ or ‘where’s that’ or ‘I wonder what her dreams were?’.

Carla Coulson, photography heirloom, portrait workshop, black and white photography, portraiture, family photography, wedding photography, puglia photography workshop, portrait workshop italy,

If you too would love to leave your family memories on paper you may like to learn how to master and enjoy taking photos of people in Puglia Italy this October at my workshop, Heartland, where we explore the art of people and spaces.

My love for photography and people is vast, if you share the same passion you can see all the details HERE and unlock the secrets to capturing people as you see and feel them.

What heirloom would you like to leave your family?

Sending love

Carla x

PS. Mum, I do love your corner cabinet but I love you and all the joy you have given us even more!!!! (look after those photos)

Related Post: Why Your Photos and Story Count

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February 19, 2018

in Changing Your LIfe, Great Reads, Inspiring Lives

by Carla

10 Comments

The Year of Yes

I recently read Shonda Rhimes book The Year of Yes. I loved it for so many reasons because it reminded me of me years ago when I was frightened of life and commitments.

I would say ‘no’ to everything. And it took years to realise I was saying no to myself and no to life.

Till one day I say ‘yes’ to me, I made the decision to leave Sydney and go find the right life for me and then there was no holding me back. I became the ‘yes’ girl (kind of like Jim Carrey in Yes Man) but without the old lady upstairs!

I said yes, to moving to Italy, to going out with cutie Italian hotties, to becoming a photographer, to having lunch with strangers, to improbable friendships, to picking a destination at the train station and going their spontaneously, to not knowing what tomorrow held.

I said yes to jobs that freaked me out, struggling with photography but kept on going, to learning about art and history, to meeting friends of friends for coffee or lunch. I said yes to Italy and travelled her from top to bottom, I said yes to writing it down in a book (Italian Joy) and I said yes to falling in love with the most beautiful man I know.

I said yes to life and that big old guy upstairs returned my Yes with love, friendship, tribe, happiness, excitement, travel and creativity. He decided to reward me for my bravery, my courage of going wayyyy out of my comfort zone and each time I became a little more open to life when I uttered the word Yes.

The last couple of years I got bogged down in stuff, in new learnings, a little too much routine and I started to become the ‘no’ girl again. I could hear it before it even came out of my mouth.

So yesterday I made a vow, that 2018 will become my Yes year. A year of adventure, love and happiness and I know the universe returns if you dare to open your heart and mind so dear folks anyone out there that wants to join me on the year of yes???

Ultimately the more we say no to others the more we say no to ourselves. What are you saying no to?

See you on the year of Yes??

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Now I Know Why I Was Always Disappointed On Valentine’s Day

Dear Friends and Lovers,

If there was a day of the year that triggered me (other than Christmas Day) it was Valentine’s Day.

In the old pre-photography days for Carla I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why all those bunches of flowers arrived on Valentine’s Day to the office door but they never had my name on them.

Now I know why!

Here’s what I learnt about myself. I was the first one to NOT love myself so the message I was putting out into the world was ‘hey guys, there ain’t no love here so please go knock on someone else’s door’. A male friend once told me I had an energy field as strong as the Berlin Wall around me that said ‘stay away’.

People use to talk to me about loving myself and I use to think WTF is that??? When I grew up ‘loving yourself’ had negative connotations such as, she thinks she is better than the rest, she is sooo self-centred or full of yourself so I wasn’t buying into any of that.

No I was miss low maintenance (let me carry 6 schooners of beer back from the bar in one go).

If they had only explained it better way back then I mightn’t have waited so long to actually get some self-respect.

Loving yourself is about respect, kindness, generosity and forgiveness to yourself. It’s about feeling worthy of a bunch of flowers, a foot massage, success, not the burnt chop, a new dress or someone’s love.

Sheesh, I had it mixed up for soooooo long..

So if you want to start on the road to self-love here are some tips:

Stop the negative self-talk – pull yourself up or start becoming conscious when you put yourself down. Don’t say things to yourself you would say to your loved ones.
Start putting time into yourself, take the time to care for yourself, rub that lotion into your legs instead of hurrying out of the shower!
Nourish yourself with self-care – foot massages, a new dress and signing up for dance lessons. You are worth it.
Know you are worthy of love and start giving it. Say hello, smile, be kind to others, give when you can and it will be returned to you a thousand times over.
Loving yourself is the best thing on the planet, the more you love and respect yourself the more you can live life authentically and the more love goes out into the world for others. Hallelujah.

Sending you love

Carla x

PS: Cause I love my peeps there is a 15% discount with code flowersforever on my Young Girl In Bloom Series that ENDS on Valentine’s Day click HERE

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January 25, 2018

in Get Published, Going Pro, Photography Tips, Portrait Inspiration, Published Work

by Carla

3 Comments

Backstage Secrets to this Harper’s Bazaar Shoot

Dear Folks,

I thought I would let you in on a couple of backstage secrets of how I shot this recent Harper’s Bazaar story with the beautiful Heidi Middleton and her fabulous babes.

I didn’t have the luxury of scouting this beautiful property prior before packing my bags so I jumped online to see if I could find any images to see the setting of the place. For me this is vital as it will assist me in knowing which lens to pack.

From the images I found on the net I thought the property was in a big field but when I arrived I was surprised (and delighted to see) it was actually in a village. This made capturing a big home like this from the front challenging because I was very close to the building.

Some of you may recall from my ‘How to shoot a chateau’ post that the bigger the building the trickier it is to keep lines straight if you can’t get far enough away from it.

Heidi was a dream! I think I have probably mentioned before how much I love Heidi. What a dream she was to shoot, her calmness, kindness, creativity and beauty. She was great and knew her property backwards and loved some particular parts like the beautiful ivy wall and we all dreamed of her being photographed on it on a ladder.

Red Dress Series

To shoot this photo I was on a super long ladder leaning up against the neighbors’ house in front! So the building wasn’t totally distorted I needed to be as high as I could or at least as close as possible to the middle of the building height. Shooting from a ladder is not my favourite place (yikes, did I tell you about my fear of heights) and Heidi was sitting on the balcony of the building.
I used a 70-200m L-series Canon lens and my arms were literally in a spasm by the time we had completed the shot. I had to balance myself the best I could so as not to have camera shake from the heavy lens.
We started out with Heidi sitting on the balcony and doing some more detailed shots and this lens meant that I could capture as much of the building in the image as possible including the turret, come closer in for a portrait and a vertical shot of her being playful.
I couldn’t have done these pictures without a team. We had a super photographer with me and another assistant with Heidi and we took breaks as much as possible.
When I look at the shots now I think we must have gone mad! But they were shot in a very short time. I wouldn’t recommend that any of you do this. DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO!

Flowery Skirt and Top Series

To shoot this photo we required two ladders! So the building wasn’t totally distorted I needed to be as high as I could or at least as close as possible to the middle of the building height. That meant both of us were on super long ladders. My assistant held my ladder as I had an extremely heavy lens and feared tipping.
To have the variety of images you see of the ivy wall it took a while for me to get my ladder in the right position and then we were fighting against the light that was about to come over the turret (who wouldn’t want a building with a turret?) and straight into my lens.
I used a 70-200m L-series Canon lens and my arms like in the pic above. I had to balance myself the best I could so as not to have camera shake from the heavy lens.
This lens gave me the flexibility to come in for a close-up and still get as much of the building as I could without getting off my ladder. We lost a lot of time moving the ladder even an increment.
To get that skirt moving and add a little magic took a lot of yelling across the front yard as we were both so far away from each other. Her moving the skirt added a new level to the photo.

The last shot of Heidi and her girls were shot in a field of flowers (and required no ladders, yay) we spotted on our way to her place in the morning. This pic was taken just after the sun slid over the hill and I exposed for her skin which gave the little backlight in her hair but left the rest of the foreground in even light.

I hope you enjoyed these little insights into this shoot, it really was one of those special photography days you hold tight to your heart.

Sending love

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November 14, 2017

in Changing Your LIfe, Inspiring Lives, Mentoring

by Carla

2 Comments

Are There Too Many Photographers In The World?

Dear Folks,

Have you ever thought, ‘there are just too many photographers, I might as well quit now.’

It’s true, if you look around us everyone has a good camera these days and they are all madly snapping photos of almost anything. Phone cameras have become so sophisticated that even they produce the most incredible images and even top end brands are paying ‘stars’ to create million dollar campaigns on their iPhone.

There are images everywhere you look, on buses, social media, television, billboards and giant screens around the cities and sometimes you might ask ‘is there room for one more photographer?’.

But a voice inside of me says ‘so what if there are too many photographers?’. I believe there is enough room for all of us.

I am sure people in other artistic fields feel the same way. A graphic artist, illustrator or even interior designer if they just kept looking at the numbers of people in their field would curl into a ball in the fetal position and throw the pen or fabric down.

But my lovelies, I would ask you not to look to what everybody else is doing and look inside and listen to the voice of your inner photographer who has something to say. Maybe the voice is quiet right now, self-doubting, shy, scared but if you start to trust it and allow yourself to do what it wants, you will find an incredible vision of your own.

It’s your vision that is your Excalibur sword. It’s your vision that will slash its way through all the images out there and have someone saying ‘I have to have my photos taken by THAT photographer or whose photos are these?’

If you trust your vision, if you you listen to your inner voice instead of comparing yourself to everyone else, you will let the magic out!

So on the days you are doubting your greatness, listen to your inner photographer or creative, even if it is a soft whisper and then go create what it is whispering to you.

Sending love and whispers

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If this subject interests you and you would like to know more about creative vision and having your images published the LAST PLACES are going for Get Published 2017, you can read more HERE.

What Heirloom Will You leave Your Family?

The Year of Yes

Now I Know Why I Was Always Disappointed On Valentine’s Day

Backstage Secrets to this Harper’s Bazaar Shoot

Are There Too Many Photographers In The World?

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