I feel way safer on the other side of the camera and when I look in the mirror I see someone who looks a bit tired, scarred (but definitely not scared), slightly lopsided (from lugging around giant babes for the past seven years) and googley-eyed (I can thank my big brother for calling me stork eyes as a kid, ha!).

But thats all ok, I completely accept that these are all parts of ME, because I know that although flawed, I am also beautiful. I am deeply happy, loved by many, funny (mostly), have stories to tell and a healthy and strong body.

In my first forty years I have learned that life is an incredible gift, an opportunity to be grasped with both hands and to be lived. There is no end to my quest for knowledge, and adventure, and like every human my deepest desire is to be accepted, included and loved.

Beauty is all around me, not the pretty face kind, but the real ‘I can see it beaming from deep inside’ kind. The kind that can’t be masked and the kind that I seek to surround my family and myself with every single day.

My point is that we are not what we see in the mirror, we are all so much more. Don’t let that critical little voice inside your head define who you are – it will talk total rubbish to you all day long if you let it.

So yep, this is me. I am real. I like to be silly, I can be difficult to photograph and I am hiding behind my camera because well, I am a photographer.

I am ever so grateful to the lovely Julie Abreu for accepting the challenge of capturing some natural looking photos of me doing my thing.

Thanks Julie, I know I didn’t make it easy for you – I can be a bit of a trickster.

If you want to see my actual face you’ll need to pop on over to the about page of the website.

Love Ingrid ~ Mother, Wife, Photographer, Silly Sausage