Happily ever after…

So, once in a while we, as humans, get to cross paths with truly remarkable people.  You know the ones that leave you all warm and fuzzy inside upon parting ways? In my job as a photographer, I think that it happens to me more often than most simply due to the fact that in my endeavour to create gorgeous images and to illustrate beauty from within, it means that I *really* connect with the people that I meet.  Sometimes, at first, it is just out of politeness and courtesy, however, I find that I come away from most of my sessions these days having been witness to that thing that makes each and everyone of us beautiful.

I was contacted late last year by Jess & George who were expecting their first baby.  She is a crazy arty farty type, and he a little bit more reserved and runs in the corporate world.  They may seem like an odd couple, but I don’t think there has ever been a more perfect match. Lucky for me, they took each of my ideas with a grain of salt and completely trusted me to provide them with a somewhat eclectic but extremely unique collection for their memories.

A lot of preparation went into our initial pregnancy shoot.  We decided on some classic studio images, some fun ones involving lots of messy paint, and an avant garde edgy style in a run down and dilapidated house not far from me.  What began as one shoot, with 3 separate looks, evolved into a much more “extensive” relationship than we had anticipated.

The morning of our shoot, it was overcast, allowing us to capture some dreamy natural light studio shots, and the fun paint scenario we had planned:

Then, we packed up, changed outfits and headed over to the other location for our desolate house shots.  Now, what happened over there is a whole blog post in itself, and I will retell the whole story in detail another time, but lets just say that our “avant garde/edgy” shoot was hijacked by an unhappy neighbour, a torrent of rain, and a visit from  the police (for our own protection!), and we rescheduled. ?  I also decided to ditch the styling I had selected for that shoot and went trawling through Spotlight one afternoon to find *the* perfect fabrics for what I had in mind.  A couple of late nights in front of the sewing machine and I was all ready to go!

Then, I went on a mission to find another location, of a similar feel, and something that was completely different to your standard pregnancy type thing.  I traipsed all over Brisbane until I found it in the form of a graffiti filled drain, and we went down there early one night for a wee adventure.  *Somebody* forgot to pack their lightstands into the car and believe me, holding a softbox with one hand whilst shooting with the other, sure makes for some interesting times!  But we persevered, and had a blast doing so, ending up with a great, quirky collection of images such as these:

Soooo, after all of this, one would probably think that Jess and George would be a wee bit sick of me by now!  But noooooo!  Last week, I received a call from them, asking me to photograph their brand new little man, Oliver.  Their little family had had a bit of a rough start to the first few weeks of parenting, and so, Oliver was about 21 days old when we got to do his newborn shoot.  A little older than our “normal” age for newborns, and he certainly made us work for our images that day.  However, after a MAMMOTH (think 6 hours!) newborn shoot, some yummy sandwiches a couple of cups of tea and of course yummy lamington cake, I returned home with what is possibly my most favourite collection of newborn images EVER.

Omigosh, how GORGEOUS is this family?!?

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Of course, with a beautiful Grandma in the house helping out, we had to capture a moment with her too.  Here is Oliver with his lovely “Omy”…

 

I do believe that this just *may* be Oliver’s first ever smile to be captured in a photograph as he blissfully gazes at his Mummy…

Daddy is placing bets as to what colour his eyes will be…

And a beautiful “before” and “after”…  In the after shot, Jess, just as most new mums usually do, looks a little bit less “glam”, and I love her for it!

I have been so honoured to be a part of Jess and George’s journey.  They are both nervous about what lays ahead for them as parents but I feel confident that they are totally up for the task!  They love each other and their little boy to bits, and that will get them through any obstacles that they may have to face.  As Elizabeth Stone once said  “Making a decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body”.  I think that Jess and George now understand this completely. xx