A blooming amazing @CillaBloom giveaway!

Its no surprise that I am a huge fan of Celeste’s work. The woman is incredibly talented and naturally so – a quick glance at Cilla Bloom’s blog or Facebook page will confirm this.

Celeste first took pictures for us almost a year ago, a quick family shoot in which Luca REFUSED to smile, until finally Dave bought him an ice-cream and the grinning started … better late than never 🙂

Then in April this year, when Aunty “Lolly” came to visit, I asked Celeste to do a fun shoot of the three of us – Luca, Lol and me – in which we could all just be kids. It was amazing … pictures that I will treasure forever.

Most recently, Celeste asked me if I’d like to do a maternity shoot with a difference and, without a moment’s hesitation, I said yes. I just know that the pictures that Celeste takes are phenomenal, so as instructed, I donned “something tight”, prettied myself up and headed over to a friend’s gorgeous Parkhurst home to do our shoot. Luca had to come along as Dave had work commitments, so I brought the trusty iPad with to keep him entertained. I also threw on his “I’m The Big Brother” t-shirt, in the hopes that Celeste might get one or two cute shots of my little monkey. Well … let’s just say that as usual, Celeste delivered.

The pictures blew my mind. I had always been very anti-maternity shoots. Personally, I just don’t like the “naked belly” shots, with the husband’s arms wrapped lovingly around his wife’s enormous belly. Everyone has their own taste and what’s really awesome about Celeste is that she completely understands that. She takes a brief and listens. Not once, in all the times that she’s photographed me, have I felt uncomfortable or silly. And the resulting photographs always reflect how relaxed and at ease I feel. Particularly these last ones. It takes a talented photographer to get this kind of relaxed confidence out of his or her subject and Celeste truly has that talent.

And now, the best part … how would YOU like to experience this for yourself?

Cilla Bloom has given me a festive season special to give away on my blog!* YES! All YOU need to do to win is caption this picture of Luca on the iPad, completely oblivious and unphased by the shoot going on around him 🙂

Celeste and I will review the captions (which you can post as comments below) and choose the best one during the first week in November. The prize includes:

• a 30 minute shoot
• 40 high res pics on disk
• 2 personalized Christmas cards (1 landscape & 1 portrait) on disk for printing or emailing
• 2012 desktop calendar featuring 12 pictures from the shoot

Awesome or what? I’ve just done my shoot and I’m already looking forward to the newborn shoot that we’ll have as soon as baby “M” is ready for his debut 🙂

So, get captioning – there is no limit to the number of times you can enter and I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

*Only available to people in Jozi, unfortunately!