Exploring our friend Kirsty’s (@fourjams) Instagram work is like replaying your most nostalgic childhood memories of the fall. Kirsty brings together the most inviting golds and greys often mixed with frozen moments of juvenescent jubilee. She was gracious enough to share some of her time with us so that we might learn a bit about what drives her as a creative and the role that Mextures plays in her creative process. Read along!

I'm Kirsty, a busy mum of four kids. I live in Melbourne, Australia. I'm a stay at home mum - my kids keep me super busy! I use photography and my love of Instagram as an outlet to give me some time out from the kids and away from the sometimes mundane day to day life of a stay at home mum. Both my husband and I love a road trip and a good coffee so it's fun to go for a drive sometimes to country towns and take photos with my family.

I love to take photos of my kids. They are all at school now though, so not as many opportunities to capture my youngest child who was always a willing model - and very used to me taking photos of her!

I also love to take photos of nature - I find through my love of photography I now notice things in nature - perspectives and details that I probably didn't in the past. I especially love macro photography - of flowers, droplets of rain, leaves, dandelions and the intricacies of a spider’s web. I also love fog and dark moody photos.

I love to try and tell a story with some of my shots. I love how you can tell a story without words - just by the perspective of a shot and by using creative editing. Nothing better than a foggy forest setting to tell a story!

Through my love of photography I also hope that I'm inspiring my children to notice the beauty of the world around us and the details of a flower, a spider web or how beautiful a sunset is. I love how my children pick dandelions for me to photograph!

I only use my iPhone - currently an iPhone 7 for all of my photos. I love the quality of photos I can get from my iPhone. I also love how I can have it in my pocket so I am always ready to capture, edit and share my shots.

I first became seriously interested in photography when I started using Instagram. This was about four or so years ago I think. I always loved taking photos but it wasn't until I got an iPhone that I regularly started taking, editing and sharing photos. I was inspired by some very talented photographers on Instagram which encouraged me to improve and really love my photography.

WHAT DO YOU WANT VIEWERS TO TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR WORK?

I want viewers to appreciate the beauty of nature from my photographs. With editing I love to create moods and depth that people can be inspired by. It's all about seeing things - sometimes ordinary things - and turning an image into something special which invokes feelings from people. With macro photography I love to get close up and really appreciate all the details.

WHY ARE YOU INTERESTED IN PHOTOGRAPHY AND WHAT KEEPS YOU INTERESTED?

I'm interested in photography as I find it's an outlet to take me away from my day to day life and allows me to use my creativity. I love to create artwork from sometimes ordinary things in nature. I love the freedom photography with just my iPhone allows. I also love that photography led me to sharing my photos on Instagram. I have learned so much from inspiring artists.

I continue to be interested in photography as I am very much an amateur and there is always new stuff to learn! And new places to visit.

WHAT DOES YOUR EDITING PROCESS GENERALLY LOOK LIKE?

Mextures is always my app of choice for editing. I do some editing in Snapseed or Distressed FX sometimes (not always) first. I always end up in Mextures. I just love the moods I can create. I mostly start my Mextures edit with a formula - either one already there or one I have imported from a talented artist on Instagram. I then sometimes add or tweak layers to create my completed edited photo.

DO YOU FEEL LIKE MEXTURES OFFERS ANYTHING UNIQUE TO YOUR EDITING PROCESS?

Mextures absolutely offers uniqueness to my edits. I can edit one photo a number of different ways to produce entirely different moods and feelings to the one image. I love how I can portray feeling by using Mextures on my photos. It is exciting to see an image really come to life and tell a story by using Mextures. I love the atmosphere I can get in an image with Mextures. It is easy to get a unique image as there are so many guest formulas to work with that are already in the app. I love a lot of those! I usually start with one of these and then maybe add a layer or two or more! And tweak it a bit before I'm happy with the finished image.

WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO CREATE MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE?

The challenge of creating a beautiful image is what inspires me to create. I love looking at other talented Instagrammer’s photos and it inspires me to capture and edit beautiful photos. I love using nature’s beauty to inspire me. There's always beauty out there to find! I also am inspired by my daughters to always be creative and think of new photos to take with them. I love to try and tell a story with my images.

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE MOST INSPIRED YOUR WORK?

The following are inspiring Instagrammers whose work I love and definitely inspire me when I capture and edit my images. They are all so talented and inspiring.