Heidi Horton Photography

I just realised that there is a mere 20 days until Christmas! I feel like it was Christmas not that long ago haha - where has the last year gone?! If you're like me and haven't organised all your Christmas presents yet then I have a pretty sweet special running until the 16th of December on our portrait gift cards (find out more here).

So now that I'm back on board after 10 days away drinking cocktails in Rarotonga, it's time for a re-cap of the beautiful month that was November. Here's some of my favourite portraits taken last month...

It was lovely seeing past wedding couple Cory & Ashleigh again and their wee dude Felix! The weather worked against us but we still got some beautiful family shots.

I'm currently creating a stunning keepsake prints box for them which Ashleigh plans to fill with annual family photos each year. I absolutely love this idea and our Italian leather display boxes allow you to switch out the displayed photo as often as you want with ease - a great way to get maximum enjoyment from your portraits!

I also had the pleasure of catching up with the gorgeous Hamill family in November. I feel as if I sound like a broken record but getting to photograph a family multiple times over the years is one of the best things ever! I've photographed so many life milestones for Caleb and Paula. It's a true privilege - getting to see kids grow up, family dynamics change and love forever grow.

Earlier in November I met Helen and her two boys Jake & Ollie, full of life and laughter. We had a fabulous time creating some casual portraits at Dolamore Park one evening.

You know I love nothing more than photographs filled with fun, laughter and candidness. But this striking photo below is possibly my absolute favourite portrait from the whole month and not a hint of a smile in sight...

It was wonderful to see the Walsh family this month. Just a day before Joel and Aimee (one of our past wedding couples!) got on a plane to fly to literally the other side of the world to start their new adventure in Ireland! Thank you Aimee & Joel for organising these family photos - it was a pleasure to create some precious memories while you were all together and also of course to see you again.

Last but not least is the lovely Horne family! I had a great evening hanging out with these guys updating their family portraits before Ethan heads away to University next year.

Now I'm working on a stunning linen covered photo album for Adele to showcase the wonderful mix of candid, fun portraits we created. Getting to print my portraits & bring them to life is the most rewarding part of my work, other than meeting & creating connections with the beautiful people in the portraits!

I have just a handful of portraits left for this incredible year and already my summer months are starting to book with portrait sessions.

​Don't forget to check out my limited time Christmas Gift Card Special (here). Our popular gift cards make awesome presents anytime of the year but especially for Christmas. Give a loved one the gift of photos. Preserving memories forever. (Or if you're wanting to do your own family portraits in 2020 this is a great chance to get the ball rolling & make your $$ go further! 😀).

It's the last day of October already and what a month it's been! I can't say the weather has been particularly steady but I've still managed to get through some awesome portrait sessions and we got some cracker days amongst all this rain and wind!

The start of October was full on with the Invercargill leg of my spring mini sessions. And then I've been all over Southland this month doing family portrait sessions on homes & farms.

Here's some of my favourite portraits from the beautiful month that has been...

I loved this portrait session with the gorgeous Affleck family! Richard & Kate's boys were very much on the go and I loved the documentary, candid approach we took - simply capturing them as a family, enjoying quality time at the park. Hunting for painted rocks, riding their bikes and enjoying the spring sunshine.

Meet Colin & Dorothy's beautiful family with ten grandies! I so enjoyed my time with these beautiful people capturing precious family portraits in Dorothy's lovely garden at Thornbury.

Extended family portraits are a great chance to not only create those legacy family photographs of the whole family, but also for each family group to update their portraits too!

My printer is running hot at the moment with so many prints from all these beautiful shoots, including a wonderful black & white series for the Anderson family. It was a huge privilege to get to photograph these guys again, now with little George too!

Alison, Jordan and their fun wee man Jack. We took a stroll around their backyard at Blackmount to create some family portraits, complete with matching Red Band gumboots of course!

My 2019 calendar is just about full and I'm booking portrait sessions for January & February already. Get in touch to grab a portrait info pack from me and get your portrait session booked!

And if you're getting organised with Christmas presents for your loved ones and friends, why not give the gift that keeps on giving - with a gift card for portraits! You can buy them directly here or enquire with me for more info. x

September has been a beautiful month - it's crazy to think tomorrow is October! But that's the way this year has been right?! An absolute blur! 

This spring marks a change in blogging for me here. After 7 years solid of blogging individual shoots I'm changing things up. Each month I'm going to do a highlights blog post of portraits (my wedding blog posts won't change) with my favourite images I've created for my beautiful clients each month. I've umm'd and aah'd about this change for a while because it's a little daunting to change up something that has worked so well for so long, but this year has certainly been about change for us and that includes our business. (You can read about that here if you want). I so want to be spending my time & energy serving my clients and creating beautiful imagery, rather than making sure I blog twice a week.

I recently had the privilege of capturing family portraits for Justin and Philippa's beautiful family in Gore - complete with the family pets in a few shots! This was a lovely session and their prints are currently sitting in my office looking amazing - I can't wait for Justin and Philippa to see them.

A few weeks ago I spent a warm spring afternoon with the gorgeous Weir family at their Gore home overlooking the Mataura River & Hokonui Hills. What a relaxed portrait session this was - just some good quality family time hanging out. We took a short stroll down to the riverbank and then back up to their balcony to enjoy a glass of bubbles in the sun. Perfection.

There's a bit of a theme going on here with dogs this month! I encourage families to include the family pets in even just a few of their portraits because they're a part of the family dynamic too after all. Recently though I had the opportunity to create something different to my usual family portraits. Laura asked me to create a piece of artwork for the wall of their home with a portrait of their dog, Sika. This was great fun and we had a hoot of a time trying to get Sika to sit still and give me the right expressions! I loved the challenge and I love the end result - a 30x45 inch canvas!

Not going to lie - rapid fire & a fast shutter was definitely used to create this cool series of frisbee shots! If only you could bottle and sell the energy that this pooch has for play!

Yesterday I did my first day of Spring Mini Sessions and what fun it was! The blossom was looking stunning and the weather was beautiful.

(There's still a couple of spaces left for next weekend's Mini Sessions in Invercargill if you don't want to miss out on the chance to get some fresh portraits at an amazing price! bitly.com/minisessions2019).

October is set to be lots of fun with portrait sessions and our first spring wedding too! If you've been planning to get some portraits done before the end of the year get in touch ASAP as my calendar is reaching capacity fast. I still have weekday and weeknight spaces available for October and November, but weekends are now full until December!