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!

The last time I blogged my beautiful portrait sessions was back in March! A lot has happened since then, including ZERO autumn shoots!!! Gah 2020! However while I might have missed out on those rich autumn colours my winter has been steady and filled with some absolutely gorgeous sessions and I am excited to put together this blog post showcasing some of my favourite recent photographs.

In June I had a dreamy lifestyle at-home portrait session with Arlo and his proud parents. I recently delivered some beautiful framed prints to Chloe and oh my baby Arlo had grown so much!

In June I also spent a wonderful afternoon in the local park with Jana and Georgia. The sun was shining and we had fun exploring, blowing bubbles, bird watching and finding the deer.

​Jana chose to have these portraits put into a gorgeous 9x12 inch Queensberry leather bound album and it was so delicious I wanted to keep it for the studio haha!

Next up meet Fred, Laura and their baby boy Jack. At just over a week old Jack is the youngest newborn I've photographed in a while and it was a privilege to document this fleeting yet oh so precious time for this lovely family.

You may or may not know that this year I launched my new personal branding sessions! Whether you're a baker, a graphic designer, a business coach or a photographer - my personal brand portraits are designed to give you fun, relatable content to share with your audience - showing behind the scenes, the person your customers are buying from and professional imagery to match your brand.

Recently I did one of these sessions with Nichola for her life coaching business. We had fun mixing up a few different looks, creating a blend of casual, professional and friendly portraits. 

Chelsea & James won our Couples Portrait Giveaway back in February and we finally got to make the shoot happen in July. Part of the giveaway was to answer what their favourite 'date night' activity was and Chels told me they loved doing Escape Rooms. We decided it would be cool to incorporate that so Matt and I did our first ever Escape Room with these two and we blimin' nailed it - thanks Chels & James, we have caught the Escape Room bug now too! Haha such good fun!
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Of course afterwards we drove out to the beach for a quick portrait session. Going to the beach on a cold winter's day might seem unappealing, but you can find the most magical conditions for photos if you're up for a little adventure! Check out these cuties!

This winter was certainly filled with some gorgeous newborn sessions and it's always incredibly special when the baby just happens to belong to one of our past wedding couples!

At the start of August we got to see Gem & Luke again, and of course meet two week old baby Finn. I loved being able to take these portraits for this incredible family, documenting the next chapter of their lives. I have the best job ever!

And to finish off the portrait blog why not share a few snaps I took on our camper van adventure in August?! This was a fun four days of exploring, walks with Henry and making some memories we'll treasure forever.

Bring on Spring! I've got very limited spaces left for the rest of 2020 and if you've got a gift card tucked away I'd love to hear from you! Get in touch and book your portrait session in soon.x

As I sit here putting this blog together I look out the window of my office and see the colours of autumn surrounding our home. The golden warm tones of the leaves as they change and the soft hues of the skies as the days get noticeably shorter. If you can't tell I'm feeling a little melancholy about missing out on shooting this autumn! Oh to think when I was out and about doing these beautiful summer portraits that we were blissfully unaware of how much life could change in the space of a few weeks!

I hope everyone has been doing okay in their safe bubbles over the last month and a bit! We've had a productive month around the home doing projects and gardening, but we're glad to be moving back towards some form of daily routine again. I'm not sure when I'll be able to shoot portraits next - a lot of my bookings have carried over to spring now which isn't so bad because that's my next favourite season! 😍 So while my pending shoots are up in the air for now, it's been lovely looking back on these fun family portraits.

It was such a pleasure to catch up with the beautiful McKenzie family in February. Oh my how the kids have grown since our last photoshoot! This family portrait with the tractor, complete with Zoe the dog posing perfectly alongside her humans, might just be my favourite family photo of the season!

I can't wait to get printing photos for the lovely McKenzie family soon. Mel has a whole wall of their lounge filled with photos and it's so captivating! Surely I'm not the only one who is automatically drawn to a photo wall when you walk into someone's home?! I just love looking at all the memories, milestones and moments captured and there to be enjoyed every day.

In February I got to photograph the lovely extended Gutschlag family at their family farm at Greenvale. They were ever so patient over the summer as bad weather meant we had to put off their family portrait session twice! But it all paid off in February as we scored a wonderfully sunny morning up on top of the hill with epic views. 

I had a great time with these guys - lots of laughs!

I was a sponsor for the Riversdale Speed Shears this year (which I heard was an awesome day out!) and the lovely Dunnage family were the winning bid on my portrait session in the auction. So I headed out to Dipton to meet these guys and create their first updated family photos in 16 years!!!

Now that my suppliers are back into production I should have a beautiful linen album featuring their photos arriving to the studio soon for Rayleen, along with some gorgeous prints! 

From the farm to the nursery... in March I had the pleasure of meeting Mike & Rose's first born baby girl, Alice. A bright eyed, dream baby to photograph. I so enjoyed getting to document this special time in Mike & Rose's life. Parenthood suits you wonderfully friends!

We were Mike & Rose's wedding photographers when they got married in the spring of 2017. Mike & Rose's love story was beautiful back then but as you can see from these photos life has become even more filled with love 3 years on!

And so that's a wrap for my summer season of portraits! My wedding season (like everything else!) came to a sharp stop. We were meant to have three weddings this autumn & I've certainly cried a few tears alongside my brides as their plans got turned upside down! But as I read somewhere recently; these weddings aren't cancelled, they're just on pause! And when we come out the other side of all this those wedding days will happen and they will be all the more richer with love & celebration because of it. I think the same goes for all my portraits that are currently on hold - when families are able to reconnect and celebrate their lives with a family portrait session it's going to be all the more sweeter. x