A mother of four, photographer, nature lover. Someone trying to make sense of it all, through photos and stories. 

I try to be free in all senses of the word, so I made the leap and now work with what I love doing; taking pictures, storing this life in moments, both for myself and for clients. My heart is in photographing birth and motherhood, but I take on just about any photography job. 
(See my birth photos at www.birth.no and the rest of my work portfolio at www.mariavatne.no.)

I live on a farm in Norway with my man Nik and my children Ronja, Freja, Falk and Ulv, plus a bunch of animals. We grow our own food as far as the seasons allow it, we don't go to kindergarten, the three youngest ones will be homeschooled.

We govern our own lives, we strive for independence, we want to be in this life wild and free and full of love.

Lately:

First, thank you so much for all the sweet comments on the previous post! They made me very happy!
It's been quiet here for a while, all due to what I suspect was a technical demon hovering over me. So many things have crashed here lately! First, both cars collapsed. One wouldn't start, and one was going nuts with the steering, as if it wanted to take us out of the road. And - because we live out in the country, and work at different hours, that was challenging. Luckily my wonderful mum lent us her car, so it looks like we'll see it through. And then, of course, the internet disappeared. Where it went, noone knows. Oh, and then there were all those littler thing that stopped working; dishwasher, several computer programs, phones.
Have the stars been aligned in a special way lately? Am I supposed to turn my focus into other matters? Are we too dependent on our modern facilities? Who knows.
The internet is back again, one car is fixed, the other will be next week, I fixed the dishwasher myself, the sun is shining and other aspects of our family life seems to work fine.
So what's there to complain about, really? Happy Saturday to all!
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Freja wanted to see what happened if she dove from a rock onto the gravel. Evidence above.

A walk in the garden.

Chosen again.