Emotional weather...

… everything changes, yet everything holds…

Daydreamin'

I dream of you within in the flowers for a couple of hours on a beautiful day… join me this summer for my botanical portrait sessions. Flowers by Cicely

My botanical portrait sessions are nationwide - this was at Atelier8 in Stow on the Wold

Starring you...

Newly framed images giclée printed on photo rag from a recent local family portrait session. The matt finish of Hahnemüle Photorag gives muted blacks with even colour reproduction. The surface has minimal texture with a chalky smooth cotton feel which creates smooth colour gradients. Images can be mounted and framed to your taste. These images show an off white mount and black matt frame.

Alexandra Dao is a local family portrait photographer based in Greenwich, south east London

We are each other...

“Do not fall for categories. Everyone is everything. Every ingredient inside a star is inside you, and every personality that ever existed competes in the theatre of your mind for the main role.” — Matt Haig, The Humans

Walk your own path...

“Hold your ground and walk your path,
deaf to misconceptions, fears and doubts
of those who don't dare to live their own lives.
Walk your path fearless like a lion
and tender like morning dew.” ― Petra Poje - Keeper of The Eye

All things are impermanent..

“If there is beauty, there must be ugliness;

If there is right, there must be wrong.

Wisdom and ignorance are complementary,

And illusion and enlightenment cannot be separated.

This is an old truth, don't think it was discovered recently.

"I want this, I want that"

Is nothing but foolishness.

I'll tell you a secret -

"All things are impermanent!”

― Ryokan, One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryōkan

Telling the world...

Tell me what you want to tell the world and together in my studio we can create images for your business.

These samples are from a set of photos I created this week for an IVF counsellor. She wanted bespoke images for her new website to say uplifting, optimism, spring, connection and approachability. Personal branding photography plays a powerful role in attracting the right clients to your business. How you are perceived by your ideal clients is essential.

We spent 2 hours creating a range of shots. Pls DM me to find out more and start the conversation…

On growing old and growing up...

“I am convinced that most people do not grow up...We marry and dare to have children and call that growing up. I think what we do is mostly grow old. We carry accumulation of years in our bodies, and on our faces, but generally our real selves, the children inside, are innocent and shy as magnolias.” ― Maya Angelou. Letter to my Daughter

The beautiful life...

“I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of the chaos. The pictures they paint, the music they compose, the books they write, and the lives they lead. Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art.” W Somerset Maugham — The Painted Veil

Singularity

   (after Stephen Hawking)

Do you sometimes want to wake up to the singularity
we once were?

so compact nobody
needed a bed, or food or money—

nobody hiding in the school bathroom
or home alone

pulling open the drawer
where the pills are kept.

For every atom belonging to me as good
Belongs to you.   Remember?
There was no   Nature.    No
 them.   No tests
to determine if the elephant
grieves her calf    or if

the coral reef feels pain.    Trashed
oceans don’t speak English or Farsi or French;

would that we could wake up   to what we were
— when we were ocean    and before that
to when sky was earth, and animal was energy, and rock was
liquid and stars were space and space was not

at all — nothing

before we came to believe humans were so important
before this awful loneliness.

Can molecules recall it?
what once was?    before anything happened?

No I, no We, no one. No was
No verb      no noun
only a tiny tiny dot brimming with

is is is is is

All   everything   home

Black and White....

.. but a million colour in your mind... creating images for you and stepping into a new year with me // pls DM me with your dates and photo needs and we can make a plan ♡

Being

“At the centre of your being
you have the answer;
you know who you are
and you know what you want.” — Lao Tzu

Bringing nature home

I believe in God, only I spell it nature” Frank Lloyd Wright.
Bringing nature home with my bespoke floral prints. Pls DM to start the conversation on immortalising your favourite flower…

Bringing nature home

The Very Dark Month

“Anything seems possible at night when the rest of the world has gone to sleep.” — David Almond

The Very Dark Month — prints available to purchase..

Delighting in you..

“Your life is your life.

Don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission. Be on the watch.

There are ways out.

There is light somewhere.

It may not be much light but it beats the darkness.

Be on the watch.

The gods will offer you chances.

Know them.

Take them.

You can’t beat death but you can beat death in life, sometimes.

And the more often you learn to do it, the more light there will be.

Your life is your life.

Know it while you have it.

You are marvelous.

The gods wait to delight in you." — Charles Bukowski

Delighting in you — portrait sessions with me in south east London…

True seeing...

“After all, the true seeing is within.” ― George Eliot, Middlemarch

The whole of the moon..

I spoke about wings
You just flew
I wondered, I guessed and I tried
You just knew
I sighed
But you swooned, I saw the crescent
You saw the whole of the moon
The whole of the moon… // The Waterboys

The invisible web of stories...

“The universe is one being.
Everything and everyone is interconnected through an invisible web of stories.
Whether we are aware of it or not, we are all in a silent conversation.
Do no harm.
Practise compassion.
And do not gossip behind anyone's back - not even seemingly innocent remark!
The words that come out of our mouth do not vanish but are perpetually stored in infinite space, and they will come back to us in due time.
One man's pain will hurt us all.
One man's joy will make everyone smile.” —Elif Safak

Flower power...

Living a beautiful life with fewer things // bespoke floral Christmas gifts // immortalising your favourite flower with me // giclée printed on fine art paper 325gsm hahnemuhle photo rag...♡

Start where you are...

“You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” C S Lewis