blog.annegeddes.com

#111 The number of this blog calls for another good #1

2009-11-06T18:55:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how Apple have changed the way we listen to music and made information so available via the iPhone and the iPod.

It's so much part of today, that we thought it very important, that like the Facebook page, the blog, twitter, Anne's You Tube, Anne's iGoogle theme, and of course annegeddes.com that we need to ensure that all of you that own an iPhone or an iPod would want the ability to stay in touch with Anne, and keep up to date about what Anne is doing.

We know that you are all interested in her new book, and there will be a host of information, videos and images becoming available as we go into 2010. It's already November!!

So, as we have said on the main web site, we have announced the impending release of the Anne Geddes iPhone & iPod touch App!

It's a very today way of saying in touch! (And you continue to look good to your friends!)

So register your interest today and stay informed on the release of Anne’s upcoming iPhone & iPod touch App!

It won't be long, the design is done, we just need to go through the process of making it happen.

When it's available could you also let us know how it works for you?

#110 Better late than never!

2009-11-04T15:38:00.001-08:00

It seems that we have been tied up in other blog stories and have neglected to follow up and let you know the latest addition to Anne's Limited Edition, although those of you who have visited the site would well and truly know by now. So sorry for the delay and without further ado:-

Presenting Aimee as a Fairy, the second of Anne's Limited Edition Prints to be unveiled for purchase online.

Take a trip to the Gallery today to learn all about this beautiful image, and why Anne decided to include it in her Limited Editions collection.

And by the way - many thanks to those who took a guess on our messageboard!

Though there were no correct guesses, it's great to hear which of Anne's images you enjoy, and just so you know Suzanne - your "Dream print" is certainly among Anne's selection and will be featured in the future!

#109 A family of friends and fans

2009-11-01T18:47:00.000-08:00

We just did a count and saw that Anne has photographed over 160 newborn babies in the studio during the course of this year, and it’s lovely to see how many of the families continue to keep in touch.

Just the other day one of the lovely African mothers brought her baby to the studio to say hello and stay for a cup of tea and a chat. Anne photographed her baby girl when she was just a couple of weeks old and now she is just over two months.

It’s also such a pleasure for everyone at the studio to see the babies grow up and they do so very quickly.

Sometimes it feels like family are coming to visit.

Above is a photograph of Anne, with the mother Mahawa, and her little baby daughter.

If you look up the word "family" in the dictionary, one explanation is:-"a group of people who are generally not blood relations but who share common attitudes, interests, or goals." It sounds like we have an extended "family" with Anne's Facebook Fans and the blog readers, as well as the host of Fans who use Anne's iGoogle Theme on a daily basis.

We thank you all for your continued support.

We can tell you about a new innovation for Anne Geddes in the next blog. Stay tuned!

#108 What has the old song Rockin' Robin and Anne Geddes in common.

2009-10-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

Correct! We are now Twittering!!!!!

You can now follow Anne on Twitter and bookmark our RSS feed to receive the latest from the Official Anne Geddes website.

And if you haven't already, be sure to become a Fan on Anne's Facebook page and subscribe to the Gedddes Group YouTube channel!

There will be more exciting ways soon that we will be able to keep up the news to you, especially to let you know about Anne's new coffee table book to be available in the Fall 2010.

Anne has been shooting new images all of this year and it is going to be a lovely, all new, book for you to buy for yourself or as the perfect gift!

#107 An under cover question?

2009-10-29T13:31:00.000-07:00

We're excited to announce that the second of Anne's Limited Edition Prints is due to be released next week!

No prizes for guessing what this one is, but you can join in the discussion on our messageboard!

A clue= Fairy!

Thanks for all for your comments on Facebook and to the followers of the blog; it's a nice feeling, knowing that you are all out there sharing our thoughts and feelings. Lovely also to see the posts of the photos of the babies.

We will have a couple of new announcements over the next couple of weeks, we will keep you up to date.

#106 A reason to celebrate

2009-10-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

The reason is that Anne's Flagship store that we just showed to you on Facebook celebrated it's 4th birthday, so Happy Birthday to the store.

And for those who were wondering what the flower was in the last blog, it's the Waratah! (telopea speciosissima) (plant family: Proteaceae).

It's the Floral Emblem of New South Wales, the State that Sydney is the capital of in Australia and where Anne has her studio now.

Sorry no prizes for correctly guessing, but if you knew the botanical name well done!

#105 A clue for the new book

2009-10-25T15:39:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in an earlier blogs, Anne sometimes goes on excursions out of the studio if she need to research anything. It’s always exciting to go on these little road trips, whether they be near or far, as it gives us all a chance to get out of the studio for a while.

Producing a book means a great deal of time spent at the studio, so it is a nice change to actually get out.

Some of the team accompanied Anne out to the Mount Annan Botanic Gardens. Anne has sourced some elements for the new book from them in the past, and visited the New South Wales seed bank, which is located there.

But yesterday, Anne was invited to tour the gardens themselves. (more clues re the content of the new book) Mt Annan is a native garden on approximately 400 hectares (100 acres) and is about one hours drive from the centre of Sydney.

Two of the research team took Anne on a guided tour. The gardens are really lovely, quite natural in appearance a lot of the land looks like undulating countryside, not garden-like at all.

The team had a wonderful morning out there and finished it off with a picnic in their wattle grove. (no cup cakes)

Here is Anne studying a possible addition to the book. The name of the flower next blog!

Don't forget to look at using Anne's iTheme on Google and also it was nice to see so many nice comments from Anne's Facebook Fans regarding Anne's Flagship store in Downtown Disney. It was actually a Disney invitation that made this location possible.

For those who have not been there to Disneyland, (make a promise to go to Disneyland, it's really a fun place) we are directly opposite the Disney store.

#104 For your interest

2009-10-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

It's terrific to see how many of Anne's Facebook fans are using the iTheme that we created for iGoogle. We will be going to change this as we go forward with the new book and once it is set you will be able to receive the changes automatically.

We will be releasing the name of the new book also this year with a special announcement by Anne. In fact there is a clue in the current theme! The release will be the Fall of 2010 and the wonderful results from the Frankfurt Book Fair will mean the book will be available in most countries around the globe.

We will let you know on the website and blog as to where and when.

Also, a little while back I mentioned that we had a pregnant lady from France into the studio, who happened to be the ex nanny of one of our team. Well she has had her baby and brought him into the studio along with her sister, Veronique, who is visiting from France. Veronique lives in a small village called Goudourville, which is in the mid Pyrenees area in the South of France.

Veronique speaks little English, so it was lovely to hear them speaking their beautiful language. Our team member, Valerie, speaks fluent French as well, so she joined in. Not so the rest of the team! Smiling is good!!

The two sisters were discussing a family wedding, which is to be held in Goudourville later on in the year. The new baby will be going. It seems that many new babies do lots of travelling before they are even six months old, at least the ones that come in here do.

#103 "Love is in the air"..... (literally ). What can go wrong sometimes does!

2009-10-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

A young couple visited Anne's studio last week and they told us that they had met via a dating service on the Internet.

They said that they talked every day online for about six weeks and then decided to set up a date.

The man, Scott, booked a very special table at a restaurant which overlooks Sydney Harbour and had gone to great pains to book the best table in the house, he had ordered flowers to be on the table, he had also booked a limousine to pick his date, Helen, up from her home and drive her to one of Sydney’s five star harbourside hotels where she was instructed to catch the lift to the beautiful cocktail bar on the 36th floor where he would be waiting for her.

The plan was to have pre-dinner drinks there, then back to the limousine, then drive over the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the restaurant he had booked.

Unfortunately for both of them, Helen developed a bad case of food poisoning in the afternoon, but left it until the last minute to call him, as she was hoping she would recover.

Unfortunately she was very ill and couldn’t make it.

So, after much discussion, Scott organized a repeat performance for the following week. (naturally there would be a fresh bunch of flowers on the table)

Things went very well, they talked and laughed and were the last people to leave the restaurant; they said the staff were cleaning up around them probably hoping they would leave so that they could all go home.

Ever since that evening they spoke several times a day on the phone.

They decided after a brief romance of about three months, that they wanted to try for a baby, and it happened very quickly.

They plan to marry next year and both laughed that they are doing things back to front.

They are very happy together…something to be said for love at first sight (or in case of the Internet, first email).

We hope the baby can come to the studio to be photographed by Anne when he or she is born.

Now "Isn't it romantic"?

#102 Catch up news

2009-10-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

The Fair at Frankfurt was very successful with the reaction to Anne's new images and book really terrific. The team who were there are on their way back to Sydney (and also America), this blog in fact comes to you from Dubai airport in the Arab Emirates. ( a very big airport) We will be able to tell you more about the new book as we approach the end of the year.

Back in Sydney, Anne continues to shoot new images, and as mentioned in earlier blogs, we do get some interesting people into Anne's studio.

A young couple came to the studio. The mother( who is pregnant) is a voice-over artist who works on animated features – mainly doing children’s voices. The father looks after their first baby at home during the day and will also look after the new baby when it’s born, however by night he is a chef and caters for private dinner parties.

She is from Chicago and her family are still there. He was on holiday in America when they met in Los Angeles. They spent the next week together and then he returned to Australia. A month later he was on a plane again to meet up with her in Los Angeles.

The rest is history – they have not been apart since. They married, had one little boy and a baby girl is on the way.

The baby is due to be born quite soon and the mother will have a couple of weeks off, then she starts work on an animated series for television.

So onto the next leg of the journey home.

When we travel it's always lovely to hear comments from the flight crew on how much they enjoy Anne's photographs when they learn what some of the team do.

#101 Behind the Scenes!

2009-10-15T20:59:00.000-07:00

For Anne's Facebook Fans it was exciting to pass the 11,000 number, thanks for your help. The Book Fair continues with some very good reaction to the preview of Anne's new book.

We said in blog #100 we had some more news regarding the Limited Edition Prints that we would share with you.

For the launch of Anne’s Limited Edition Print Collection, we thought it would be nice to share with you some of the things that go on behind the scenes to create a truly special collection, such as this:-

Let me introduce to you Marie, one of Anne Geddes two specialist black & white hand-printers.(See photo above)

Marie says:-

"Some years ago Anne decided to make Limited Editions of some of her favorite photographs.

Rebecca, who is Anne’s other printer, and I have been working on these for a while now, in between making prints to scan for Anne’s book projects.

Until recently, all of Anne’s black and white work had been shot on film, and printed in her studio darkroom, and this is where Rebecca and I have produced Anne’s Limited Edition Print Collection.

Before her move to Sydney, Anne’s office was just through our darkroom wall. Fortunately she had a wall full of books to muffle the sound of music – ours, not hers!"

#100 Good news from the Frankfurt Book Fair

2009-10-14T22:51:00.000-07:00

Well to celebrate the 100th blog for this year, it is nice to say that reaction to the preview of Anne's new book is very, very good.

Everyone is very excited!!! We will be able to let you all know what it all about very soon, as naturally we had to wait until the Fair.

Also we will be able to celebrate the 11,000 Facebook Fan in the next few hours; make sure you tell a friend so they may be the 11,000 person!!!

More soon, tomorrow we can give you some interesting information about the Limited Edition Prints.

#99 Day One at the Frankfurt Fair about to start

2009-10-14T00:23:00.000-07:00

Some interesting facts on the Frankfurt Book Fair to let you know how big it actually is. It goes over 9 large Halls, each hall is the size of 4 football fields. There are 7,314 companies exhibiting and over 300,000 people expecting to attend.

This is the 16th year that we have been exhibiting Anne’s images for her books.

Reaction is expected to be all that we imagine, and Anne has created once again a beautiful collection of images for what promises to be a truly wonderful book for Fall 2010.

More soon.

#98 It’s a very exciting week.

2009-10-12T19:49:00.000-07:00

This week is the time of the Frankfurt Book Fair. And this is where for the first time we have a showing of a preview of Anne’s new book that we have been telling you about.

Anne has not finished shooting the book yet, and won’t be until the end of the year, but all of the many joint publishers from around the world come to Frankfurt to see what Anne has been photographing.

Some of Anne’s team are going to be there including Anne’s husband Kel. Anne is staying behind in Sydney to continue with the photography.

It’s all very exciting and we will be able to let you know during the week of some of the details from the Fair.

#97 A repeat of one of Anne's interviews

2009-10-11T16:39:00.000-07:00

As many of you are aware, Anne recorded a lovely interview on the programme Between The Lines, when she was on her tour to promote her autobiography A Labor of Love. This has been replayed in many cities; for those who like to see the interview on the television at home, it's now Central Michigan's turn, so tune in to WCMU-TV on Wednesday, October 14, at 1:00 PM.

If this post has sparked an interest in others wanting to see this interview with Barry Kibrick, you can watch it on Anne's YouTube channel.

#96 Questions and answers

2009-10-07T13:30:00.000-07:00

It’s been wonderful to see such a great response on Anne’s official Facebook page and from our dedicated blog readers.

You will no doubt have seen that we have had a lot of exciting things happening in the last few weeks, but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t been enjoying seeing your photos and reading all of your comments on Anne’s wall.

It’s been really lovely to see the great responses that you’ve all had to the pure clothing line and the Limited Edition Prints, which were released just this week.

For those with questions of the Facebook page we do try to answer personally, but we can share a few responses for all of you.

Thanks to Susan for her comments regarding Anne’s speech in Arizona.
Anna Marie, Anne doesn’t actually undertake any private portraiture work, she simply doesn’t have the time because of her contractual commitments;
Cali, because of Anne’s book project in Australia she is not able to visit her store at Downtown Disney, but we will let all of her US fans know via the website and Facebook page next time she’s going to be there;
Irene, we do review our shipping arrangements and add countries whenever we can, so keep checking back on the website;
Ana Luz, unfortunately Anne’s calendars are not published in Bolivia and we can’t ship there at present, but you could try to use a mail forwarding service in the USA to purchase via the annegeddes.com online store.
Carrie regarding Anne finding her babies for her photos, if you go back over the blogs, you will see that it is generally by word of mouth, when Anne is going to produce a book, people find out through friends and contacts

Once again thanks again for keeping in touch. We do love hearing from you.

#95 What has banana bread to do with this photo?

2009-10-05T13:20:00.000-07:00

So far for Anne’s new book, (available Fall 2010) Anne has photographed many newborn babies, in fact at last count, it was up around 160. It’s lovely having them in the studio, very calm and peaceful, because once they are fed, they fall asleep basically. (perhaps not at 3am at your house!) But when they do, because Anne has it all set beforehand, the photo happens very quickly.

Last week Anne had five six-month-old babies into the studio to be photographed, quite a change from the newborns! Five little strong personalities came through the doors. Absolutely beautiful and entertaining because they look at you and laugh, so it’s a very happy time for the team as well. Anne still has to be quick, as they lose interest very quickly.

We had two African babies, one whose mother is from Sierra Leone and the other from Nigeria. One of the six-month-old babies was a little girl in who had already been to the studio as a newborn, but during the course of that morning her mother developed terrible mastitis and had to leave to go to the doctor before Anne could photograph her baby. So finally, she came back as a six month old.

Here is a photograph of one of the little African babies. Her name is Cordelia and she is sitting on the floor of our reception area eating some banana bread. This was the first time she had tried banana bread, it happened to be on the morning tea plate that we provide for the parents and her mother gave her some to try. We ended up sending the entire leftover banana bread home with her, as she seemed to have taken a distinct liking to it.

We will continue with stories regarding the new book, and as we move into next year we will share more in-depth stories and also share some of the images with you, but you will have to patient for that.

Tell your friends if they are interested, and we can let you spread the word regarding what the content of the new book is all about.

# 94 We have uncovered something special!

2009-09-30T21:42:00.001-07:00

Anne’s 1st Limited Edition Print for sale has been unveiled on the web.

And it is:- (drum roll) Jack holding Maneesha, one of Anne’s favourite (and iconic) images.

There is also a new video for you to see; for those who are still not aware of how special these prints are, this is a good one to watch.

So log onto to the Gallery now and help spread the word.

# 93 Some things to do before Thursday

2009-09-27T12:03:00.000-07:00

For blog watchers, Facebook Fans, and assorted calendar followers, you all know that Thursday is October 1st!

You will all need to look at this following list:-

1. Take a look at some comments regarding which Limited Edition Print our users think is going to be the 1st one!

2. Take a look at the 3rd short video from Anne talking about what is coming! You have seen the other two, you would not want to miss the last one!

3. Make sure that you have a seat booked in front of your computer when we unveil the 1st Print on October 1st!

4. Enjoy the rest of September!

We will have more news on Anne's new book this week as well.

Anne has a very important shoot this week, we will tell you about that when we can, but it's interesting that it is happening this very week!

#92 “It’s not over.”

2009-09-23T22:01:00.000-07:00

The Editions may be limited the information isn’t.

Click here to see a new video of Anne speaking about why these Editions are so important and what she loves about the process.

#91 A good reason to celebrate!

2009-09-23T01:13:00.000-07:00

As some of you were aware, last week was Anne’s birthday.

Anne celebrated by going out to dinner with some friends that night; in fact she went to the restaurant at the Sydney Opera House which has beautiful views over the harbour and the Harbour Bridge.

The next night it was dinner with her husband and daughters at a small restaurant in Woollahra, a suburb just east of the city.

When Anne came to the studio on the Monday, after her birthday, (any excuse) we had some delicious cake – chocolate and raspberry to be precise. (to blog followers, yes a change from cup cakes!)

Above, a “low calorie” photograph of the not so “low calorie” luscious birthday indulgence – we quickly sang Happy Birthday and then we devoured it.

#90 The making of a photograph

2009-09-20T13:49:00.001-07:00

Anne decided that she needed some very delicate fabric for one of her shoots. Despite an extensive search, the right fabric was not to be found in the usual shops or the suppliers we deal with.

Dawn, Anne’s prop maker sourced some material but it needed modifying, needed to be more sheer than it already was. That is to say that every second thread had to be painstakingly pulled out in one go without breaking the thread (and we are talking about very fine threads).

There were about ten meters (just over ten yards) of the fabric, it doesn’t seem like all that long, but when every second thread needs to come out, it’s very, very long!

Initially, Dawn and an assistant spent about a week working on it, but needed to start work on other props, so the task was handed over to Anne’s two daughters Stephanie and Kelly. As you know from previous blogs, both work for Anne in the studio. They spent every spare second they had working on it as the deadline was looming. There were many sighs and groans coming from the work-table during those long days of thread pulling.

On the actual day of the shoot because the job was not quite finished, there were about seven of the team working on it that morning, including the nurse who works with us when we have children in the studio.

Even if Anne did not like the result, I think she would have been too frightened to mention it, it could have meant a mutiny in the studio. She did like it!!!

She joked with her daughters that she thought it might be a great idea to cover the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the fabric…in the style of the artist Christo…imagine how long that would need to be and how long it would take. I think the girls would be looking for alternative employment if that were the case.

The photograph is Kelly working away and actually looking rather happy about it!

#89 Something to celebrate!

2009-09-16T14:47:00.000-07:00

Every year we enter the annual web awards competition, just so we can have a measure of performance and see how we fare against other sites.

It’s not the Academy Awards or the Emmy’s, (not a red carpet in sight), but the 2009 WebAwards has named the best Websites in 96 industry categories.

Nominations came from interactive agencies and web site marketing departments in more than 47 countries from around the world.

I know you will be pleased to know, and it may not be a surprise, but Anne’s site was awarded:-

“The Anne Geddes website won the Best Photography Website in the WebAwards.”

We also fared very well in all areas and finished with a 56.5 score against an industry average of 48. The award average was 51.9.

We are pleased we did so well, but it is really you, the Fans, that we do it for, so that you can enjoy Anne and her work.

If you have any suggestions on how we can improve, we are always open to comment.

All right then, if you insist, a small amount of applause is appreciated!!!!

#88 Anne talks about her Limited Editions

2009-09-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

A couple of quick blogs this week.

Click here to see Anne introduce her Limited Edition Collection.

It's a good way to understand directly from the artist as to what it is all about...

#87 Handy to have around!

2009-09-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

Anne had a newborn into the studio last week whose parents are from Nigeria, but this little boy, even though he was only two weeks old, already has quite a story to tell.

There is a handyman service in Sydney called “Hire a Hubby.” You can call them up about anything you need attended to around the house, and they will send someone around to fix it.

A couple of weeks ago, this particular family had a Hire a Hubby handyman in their home fixing some doors. The pregnant wife was upstairs and the husband and mother-in-law were downstairs with the handyman.

Unfortunately the wife started to go into labour quite quickly and called out to her husband. By the time he arrived, the baby was well on its way. The father and the mother-in-law were not coping with the situation very well, so the handyman took over proceedings, rang an ambulance, said it was too late to get the woman to hospital, and could they give him some instructions over the phone on how to deliver a baby!

Which is exactly what they did, and he followed them perfectly. When the paramedics arrived it was all done, and the baby was comfortably cradled in his mother’s arms.

The handyman coincidentally lives in the next street, so calls in every couple of days to see how the baby is going. He certainly would feel a certain affinity with this little fellow.

We have heard of cab drivers and other unrelated people who have had to handle unexpected births, but it certainly makes the job title “handyman” very appropriate.

Any other interesting birth stories amongst Anne’s Facebook Fans?