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Nellie the Mellie

October 20, 2017

I ran away to Europe for two months and it was a photographic odyssey. I’m finally starting to sort through a few of them and this is my favourite series I’ve found so far. While driving through Croatia on our way to Bosnia and Herzegovina (from Split to Mostar), we drove past so many roadside fruit stalls that we suddenly decided we had to stop! So all four girls yelled at Dan to pull over straight away. Gab ran across the road because she spotted the world’s best watermelon and I saw that as my opportunity to take as many photos as possible of the tasty treats for the Cactus Banana collection.

The real treasure that was found on this stop, however, was Nellie the Mellie. She was the tastiest watermelon one could ever have and she lives on in our memories!

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#52Ladies Project: Ramone

October 17, 2017

Inspired by International Women’s Day, I want to photograph 52 ladies, one for each week, from my life and recommended to me. To me, the most inspiring women in my life are my friends and family.

They are the ones who push me to go further and pick me up when I’m down. I couldn’t do anything without my girl gang. I want to empower my ladies to see themselves how I see them.

Ramone is one of my heroes and was my yoga teacher on the retreat in Sri Lanka. She lives her life in the best way possible – being true to herself in doing what she loves. What she loves is teaching yoga and travelling the world. One of the best parts of my healing process was her recommendation to journal during the retreat. It enabled me to see the small milestones and the subtle differences in everyday. I managed to grab Ramone for a brief moment in Canberra before she left to conquer the world.

What would be the title of your autobiography?
Wisdom from the lessons I didn’t learn the first time around…

If you were to write a self-help book, what would the topic be?
The life-changing magic of self-care (and travel!).

What are your three most overused words/phrases?
“Like”, Chaduranga & Namaste.

You’re happiest when?
I’m exploring.

What phobias do you have?
SPIDERSSSSSSS

What places have you lived in?
Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, USA & Thailand. Each of them has a little piece of my heart.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
You can have it all…but you can’t have it all at once.

What are three words that you’d like to define yourself with?
Wild, Wise and Well are the pillars of my personal philosophy but I also connect to Empower, Educate and Inspire…

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#52Ladies Project: Emma

June 27, 2017

Inspired by International Women’s Day, I want to photograph 52 ladies, one a week, from my life and recommended to me. To me, the most inspiring women in my life are my friends and family.

They are the ones who push me to go further and pick me up when I’m down. I couldn’t do anything without my girl gang. I want to empower my ladies to see themselves how I see them.

I know a lot of us can be shy in front of the camera, but what is more empowering than owning our own image and being proud of who we are? Know that I am proud of every single one of you. It’s about seeing yourself how I see you – wonderful, clever, brave, strong, incredible and inspiring.

All of the portraits will be taken in black and white so that the focus will be on your wonderful spark. And don’t we all look better in black and white?!

Not only did I want to take beautiful portraits of these gorgeous ladies, I also wanted to give them a chance to reflect on what matters to them and what they value about being female. I’ve given them all quite a few questions and asked them to answer whichever ones they like the most. Hopefully, it will allow you to see each of them as not only beautiful in their photo but stunning through their words.

If you know someone inspiring I should include, please recommend them. Could be your best friend, Mum, colleague etc.

This is a project I started a few months ago – right after International Women’s Day in March – and I’m so happy to be finally starting to post the series.

Our first lady is my other half, my beautiful sister Emma. She is currently living her dream – travelling the world for 8 months with her best friends. Emma is everything to me. She is the first person I turn to for advice – whether its of the emotional support variety or for her rightfully-so ‘suck-it-up princess’ attitude – she always knows the right thing to say. Because of how we grew up (living in 4 countries), she’s the only person who I’ve done everything with. After each move and while we were new, we were each other’s only friends but now we actively seek out each other to hang out just us. She was the best housemate and crafting buddy ever. We have scarily similar tastes but grew up to have such different attitudes towards things like work and travel etc. Emma has never forgiven me for making us miss our very first train together on our solo trip around Europe back when she was 18. And I’ve never let her forget the time she tried to prank me that our luggage got stolen but it backfired! With a sister, you’ve always got built-in bestie but I know mine takes the cake and she is more than just my bestie. All she wants is for me to be happy because in her words, “a happy Amanda is less work” for her!

So of course I started with her.

Right at the start of her travels, I asked her to think over what it means to be a lady in 2017.

Can you tell us a little something about yourself:

I am a 24-year old, nurse, avid traveller (thus the 8 month vacation), dog lover (missing my dogs the most out of everyone in Oz), wanna-be creative spirit!! My family are the most important people to me and they keep me going through all the ups and downs. I couldn’t be the person I am today without them! I especially wouldn’t be able to last 8 months of travelling without them listening to my rants and stories!

What would you tell 13-year old you?

That there are going to be many up and downs ahead like everyone else and you are always going to have your family by your side! To take every opportunity presented to you, in particular anything involving travel. Try and stress a bit less, things will happen without your control and sometimes you just ‘gotta roll with the punches’.

What has been your best year?

This year I hope!!!!

Hopefully the next 8 months will be an amazing experience, the first 3 weeks of the trip have already been a blast and the first 3 months have been fun so we are on a great path to this being the best year!!!

To you, what is happiness?

Happiness is being comfortable with the person you are and the people around you!! It’s being able to smile and enjoy yourself without stressing the big things (not going to kid myself I’m always going to stress the small things but that doesn’t mean I’m not happy). It’s about spreading the happiness to those around you, its not something you can do alone!

What brings you happiness?

Being with my dogs, family and friends!!! Surrounding myself with those who know and support me!!

What gets you up in the mornings and what motivates you?

In Melbourne when living at my parent’s house my dog, Elle, literally gets me up in the morning with a great pounce on your chest just to make sure you’re alive, she was probably a nurse in her past life and keeping up to date her CPR skills

Now the motivation to explore the new city we are in everyday gets me up in the mornings, so much to explore and eat!!

What are your guilty pleasures that you shouldn’t feel guilty about?

Reality TV – how can you resist some Toddlers & Tiaras (even tried to find a pageant to see while driving around the USA but sadly missed it by a day in one of the towns), 19 Kids and Counting (still on the search for a Jim Bob to bring home to the parents) and Keeping Up With The Kardashians (such a classic)

#noshame

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

“Fake it until you make it”

Which I have taken to mean appear the right amount of confident until you have the skills required to keep going. .In particular, at work you need to appear confident so that people will trust your ability within the work force. Although when you first start, you are going to have so many questions and limited knowledge it is in your best option to “fake it until you make it”.

I also use it in personal situations, it always helps to have a little bit of confidence when it comes to talking to randoms, making friends in awkward social situations or doing something out of your comfort zone.

What is your personal mantra right now?

Do something that scares you and as my phone case says “take the road less travelled”

I.E. terminate your contract at work and take an 8 month trip around the world rather than take the path everyone else takes to work and save. This is way more fun and scary at the same time!!

There are many things that scare me or make me anxious but this year my mantra while travelling is to push myself because in 10 years I don’t want to have any regrets about my trip.

What have the females in your family taught you about being a woman?

To love yourself for who you are. This the straw you drew in the world and you should embrace and cherish it rather than continuously criticise and put yourself down!! Negativity never gets you anywhere!!!

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Claire + Drew’s Wedding

June 26, 2017

Dear C + D,

On a long weekend a little while ago, you two calm lovebirds built a life together. It was a day filled with laughs, topless dads, pantless groomsmen, sparklers and of course, so much love between your beautiful souls. Even all these months later, I can still feel the love radiating from the photos – I hope you do too. I feel incredibly grateful to have been trusted by you to capture your day – I can honestly say it was one of my happiest days hanging out with you on the Mornington Peninsula!

Love always,
A

 

To see more of their love story…
[Read more…]

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A Minimalist Single Column Blog

July 8, 2015

Isn’t it refreshing? One, single column of beautiful content surrounded by airy whitespace. The demise of the sidebar has resulted in some great new design possibilities and we’re jumping in feet first. Starting with this purposely minimalist blog design. We’re not lazy, we swear, we just love big, huge photos smack in the middle of a white page. Don’t you? Especially when it’s your lovely work and thoughtfully crafted words locking eyes with readers.

Now, we’re not bloggers (not lately anyway), so we won’t go on and on about our love for a great single column blog. Instead we’ll simply add in some dummy text to help you visualize and move on to the next item on our to-do list. How about another photo for good measure as well?

girl-tall

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam nec purus arcu. Integer mauris tellus, laoreet sed porta ac, auctor vitae augue. Vestibulum ac lacus tellus. Nam rhoncus ipsum quis odio volutpat luctus. Aenean elit risus, pellentesque at convallis id, rutrum sed velit. Pellentesque at lacus felis. Vestibulum eu dapibus elit. Fusce tincidunt, risus a ultricies rhoncus, nisi erat viverra nunc, et rutrum neque sapien vel felis.

DESIGN IS A FUNNY WORD. SOME PEOPLE THINK DESIGN MEANS HOW IT LOOKS. BUT OF COURSE, IF YOU DIG DEEPER, IT’S REALLY HOW IT WORKS.

Pellentesque eu nisi in nisi aliquam fringilla sagittis sed lorem. Pellentesque facilisis vitae magna nec elementum. Suspendisse eu gravida velit. Vestibulum non fringilla eros. Duis tincidunt felis ornare rhoncus feugiat. Nullam dapibus quam vitae posuere vestibulum. Pellentesque non sodales velit. Sed fringilla risus eu purus dignissim efficitur, fusce euismod ipsum vel iaculis accumsan.

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An Optional Blog Sidebar Layout

July 1, 2015

Sometimes you just want to mix it up, and now with our optional sidebar layout you can do just that. Choose to add a sidebar to the entire blog, or just to specific posts – the choice is really up to you! A fully widgetized sidebar is the perfect place for a signup form, some social media links, archives, search bar and more. Choice is a beautiful thing, isn’t it?

shells

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam nec purus arcu. Integer mauris tellus, laoreet sed porta ac, auctor vitae augue. Vestibulum ac lacus tellus. Nam rhoncus ipsum quis odio volutpat luctus. Aenean elit risus, pellentesque at convallis id, rutrum sed velit. Pellentesque at lacus felis. Vestibulum eu dapibus elit. Fusce tincidunt, risus a ultricies rhoncus, nisi erat viverra nunc, et rutrum neque sapien vel felis.

stingray-tall

Sed mauris nisl, scelerisque quis ex ac, hendrerit pellentesque urna. Suspendisse suscipit efficitur elit et commodo.Praesent hendrerit, ipsum vel dictum pretium, nunc quam efficitur eros, eu facilisis lacus mi faucibus turpis. Pellentesque orci leo, mattis vitae leo in, euismod feugiat augue. Duis augue risus, porttitor quis nunc in, semper malesuada tellus.

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Big, Bold Full-Width Blog Images

June 24, 2015

If you read our other post about how much we like single column blogs, then you’ll also know that we like great full width photos that demand your attention. So here are some more to really get our point across. It’s kind of like a gallery; calming, inspiring and a tad intimidating (in a good way) all at the same time.

crabs

Sed sodales erat at quam mollis, nec maximus massa scelerisque. Maecenas sapien nisl, tempus vitae elit a, aliquet varius sapien. Donec egestas auctor euismod. Nam rutrum facilisis rhoncus. Aenean id eros mattis, maximus felis eu, auctor lectus. Mauris quis nisi ut lorem viverra varius tempor eget odio. Fusce ultricies mauris ut lectus gravida imperdiet.

seagull

Sed mauris nisl, scelerisque quis ex ac, hendrerit pellentesque urna. Suspendisse suscipit efficitur elit et commodo.Praesent hendrerit, ipsum vel dictum pretium, nunc quam efficitur eros, eu facilisis lacus mi faucibus turpis. Pellentesque orci leo, mattis vitae leo in, euismod feugiat augue. Duis augue risus, porttitor quis nunc in, semper malesuada tellus.

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Lots of Styled Headings for Structure

June 17, 2015

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam nec purus arcu. Integer mauris tellus, laoreet sed porta ac, auctor vitae augue. Vestibulum ac lacus tellus. Nam rhoncus ipsum quis odio volutpat luctus. Aenean elit risus, pellentesque at convallis id, rutrum sed velit. Pellentesque at lacus felis. Vestibulum eu dapibus elit.

Here’s a sample heading

Sed sodales erat at quam mollis, nec maximus massa scelerisque. Maecenas sapien nisl, tempus vitae elit a, aliquet varius sapien. Donec egestas auctor euismod. Nam rutrum facilisis rhoncus. Aenean id eros mattis, maximus felis eu, auctor lectus. Mauris quis nisi ut lorem viverra varius tempor eget odio. Fusce ultricies mauris ut lectus gravida imperdiet.

And here’s another sample heading

Sed mauris nisl, scelerisque quis ex ac, hendrerit pellentesque urna. Suspendisse suscipit efficitur elit et commodo. Praesent hendrerit, ipsum vel dictum pretium, nunc quam efficitur eros, eu facilisis lacus mi faucibus turpis. Pellentesque orci leo, mattis vitae leo in, euismod feugiat augue. Duis augue risus, porttitor quis nunc in, semper malesuada tellus.

Yet another sample heading

Nam dapibus quis tortor vitae blandit. Quisque a enim id diam elementum sodales. In pharetra at orci sit amet iaculis. Suspendisse porta tellus a tellus maximus, non pulvinar ipsum eleifend. Donec id velit placerat, sodales ligula eu, volutpat metus. Donec ut ex velit. Cras congue metus in fermentum posuere.

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A Blog Post on All Things Coastal

June 10, 2015

Nam dapibus quis tortor vitae blandit. Quisque a enim id diam elementum sodales. In pharetra at orci sit amet iaculis. Suspendisse porta tellus a tellus maximus, non pulvinar ipsum eleifend. Donec id velit placerat, sodales ligula eu, volutpat metus. Donec ut ex velit. Cras congue metus in fermentum posuere.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam nec purus arcu. Integer mauris tellus, laoreet sed porta ac, auctor vitae augue. Vestibulum ac lacus tellus. Nam rhoncus ipsum quis odio volutpat luctus. Aenean elit risus, pellentesque at convallis id, rutrum sed velit. Pellentesque at lacus felis. Vestibulum eu dapibus elit. Fusce tincidunt, risus a ultricies rhoncus, nisi erat viverra nunc, et rutrum neque sapien vel felis.

DESIGN IS A FUNNY WORD. SOME PEOPLE THINK DESIGN MEANS HOW IT LOOKS. BUT OF COURSE, IF YOU DIG DEEPER, IT’S REALLY HOW IT WORKS.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam nec purus arcu. Integer mauris tellus, laoreet sed porta ac, auctor vitae augue. Vestibulum ac lacus tellus. Nam rhoncus ipsum quis odio volutpat luctus. Aenean elit risus, pellentesque at convallis id, rutrum sed velit. Pellentesque at lacus felis. Vestibulum eu dapibus elit. Fusce tincidunt, risus a ultricies rhoncus, nisi erat viverra nunc, et rutrum neque sapien vel felis.

Sed sodales erat at quam mollis, nec maximus massa scelerisque. Maecenas sapien nisl, tempus vitae elit a, aliquet varius sapien. Donec egestas auctor euismod. Nam rutrum facilisis rhoncus. Aenean id eros mattis, maximus felis eu, auctor lectus. Mauris quis nisi ut lorem viverra varius tempor eget odio. Fusce ultricies mauris ut lectus gravida imperdiet. Curabitur sagittis nibh ac dolor sollicitudin, eget blandit purus fringilla.

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Another Sample Blog Post for You

June 6, 2015

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed euismod mauris nunc. Vivamus ligula magna, luctus sit amet velit non, rhoncus finibus nisl. Praesent ut gravida dolor. Aenean eget nisi vitae metus feugiat dignissim ac nec odio. Nulla sit amet dui nulla. Phasellus mauris turpis, bibendum at elit ac porttitor tellus. Integer sed neque id augue molestie tempor ut mauris dictum efficitur. Pellentesque luctus massa vel metus viverra, quis rutrum mi viverra.

seagull-square

Maecenas id ultricies felis, non ultrices nunc. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin dui urna, bibendum at dolor non, ultricies feugiat neque. Fusce magna neque, consequat et arcu eu, tempor vehicula risus. Cras non libero laoreet, euismod magna vitae, hendrerit lectus. Maecenas sapien lectus, pretium id mi vitae, convallis aliquam urna. Aenean ac auctor nulla. Suspendisse egestas augue nec neque ornare, eu vehicula metus volutpat.

sandals

In metus magna, vestibulum ac vulputate non, sagittis quis tortor. Proin vulputate fermentum nunc eu pellentesque. Nunc consequat id sem ut posuere. Vivamus scelerisque facilisis feugiat. Vivamus bibendum ante ut rhoncus dignissim. Proin condimentum, tellus in mollis tristique, lacus urna ornare odio, ut aliquam nulla ante eu leo. Nullam lacinia felis id arcu rhoncus, dictum sagittis nisl porta. Pellentesque vitae orci dictum ligula eleifend fringilla.

 

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review

5 star review  Amanda is amazing! She is super friendly and an excellent photographer. Her pictures capture the essence of the moment :) I will totally recommend her

thumb Kaori Cubas
9/21/2020

About

I am a passionate photographer, a creative graphic designer and a massive fan of sharing everyone’s but especially women’s stories.

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