 It's a little crazy to think that spring is over and we're into summer now! It's been a beautiful spring for me with a tonne of fun, gorgeous and varied portrait sessions. I'm so grateful as I put together this blog of my favourites from my spring portraits. Grateful as always to every family who commissions me create portraits for them, but also grateful to be booked and doing what I love during a tough old year. I've been shooting portraits for 7 years and for the first time ever (when we went into lockdown & then watched the rest of the world dealing with an ongoing pandemic) I really wondered if I was still going to be able to continue doing what I love for a living. So to look back on an incredible spring of portraits, my heart is so full of appreciation - for my clients, for the memories I've been able to capture and for the art of photography. My spring started with the Mahon family - this was a fun afternoon catching up with familiar faces!     I really enjoy doing these generational family portraits. The Mahon family managed to capture four generations with their session at Waikaka in September! It's not often the whole family are all together and it's an awesome chance to get not only those beautiful legacy portraits of the generations but also for each family group to have their own portraits updated too.      It was a very neat opportunity to get to create these family photos for Stephen & Lynda Blair-Edie on their farm near Ohai because last year I actually met their daughter, Jenna, for family photos on her husband's side. To then get the recommendation from Jenna when her mum wanted to do family portraits was a wonderful privilege!   And this year I carried on my annual tradition of Spring Mini Sessions which are always such fun. It feels like not long ago this wee guy Carter, was just a baby! Man time flies.  So cool to see the Jones family again! And how good was the blossom and daffodils this spring?!   We photographed Cory & Koreena's wedding five years ago. It was so neat to catch up and meet their wee man Aidan who is about to become a big brother soon!   Our friends had a baby boy!!! It was SO good to capture this very special family.   I love this black & white series from the Sayer's portrait session. Candid, real and beautiful moments.    The Rawcliffe family in their red bands on their land at Knapdale!   Then it was into my October round of spring mini sessions! I loved changing up the locations this year between my morning and afternoon sessions, and I think next year I'm going to go Southland wide with my spring mini sessions. Maybe Invercargill, Gore, Riversdale and even Te Anau - I had such an awesome response to this year's minis and I love getting to see familiar faces each year plus new families too.              As the days got longer I picked up with my evening shoots. Perfect for families to fit in after work and glorious warm sunsets for me to photograph in! It's been a long time coming to do these portraits for the lovely Grubb family but this spring we got them done! Tracey suggested just doing the shoot in their backyard and it was so easy, personal and also really special to incorporate their family home into the photos along with their fur baby Lulu.     I had so much fun documenting these newborn portraits for the Swanepoel family - such proud parents and the sweetest baby girl. I love shooting real, genuine portraits to celebrate a family's life in that moment with a newborn. So I do my newborn sessions in my client's home - going to them and documenting more candid, natural moments in their own environment.       November has been a beautifully busy month for me. The Carter family portraits at Mandeville was an absolute treat to photograph. A laidback family with some great farm backdrops on the most gorgeous Southland evening.       Master Alexander was such a cutie to photograph and I'm currently putting together a framed series from this session for his parents which is going to look awesome!     It's been a printing day in the studio today and I have some beautiful prints from Dave & Sandy's portrait session rolling off the printer! This was a lovely portrait session - Sandy won my Portrait Giveaway back in February and in her entry she mentioned how big a part of their lives Maggie is of course. You can see wee Maggie was quite the star of their portrait session.      I love all the scope and possibilities with family photos in people's own backyards. Just last Wednesday evening I met this beautiful family at their farm in Dipton and there were so many cool spots for photos, I was spoilt for choice. Awesome lighting, textures, depth. But above all, the reason I love 'at home' portrait sessions is how meaningful the backdrops are to the people I am photographing. We recently had our own portraits taken at our home and it made me see in a new light just how special, comfortable & personal it is.      I also caught up with the Pickett family last week. It was great to meet their newest addition, Alvie and see how much Felix had grown since their family portraits this time last year.     The rest of 2020 is just as beautifully busy for me with portraits and I'm taking bookings for summer and autumn already, which is exciting! The value of a photograph is not in what it means to you the day it’s taken. The true value will show itself in years to come. Wanting to give a gift that keeps on giving this Christmas? I've got gift cards which you can purchase directly on my website (here) or get in touch with me (here) to grab a portrait pricelist & info pack from me and book in your own family portraits for the New Year! 
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