Smith Family - Brisbane Family Photographer

It was windy and fresh at the beach as we met for this family session.  Thankfully the wind was blowing in the direction that would help keep hair off faces and it actually worked very much in our favour, giving an extra level of energy to this gallery.

3 year old Aara and her little brother Jacob were both dressed and ready for photos. Aara's mum told me that she sometimes takes time to warm up to new people, but we hit it off right away and were best friends within minutes.

Jacob had just celebrated his first birthday the week beforehand so this was sort of a milestone session for him as much as a family session.

The clouds had come in late in the afternoon and gave the sky a lovely diffused light which made for some stunning photos in the trees beside the beach. Lots of giggles and kisses, secret telling and tickle monsters, and Jacob had his first "swing" in between mum and dad which made him squeal with delight and beam giant oversized smiles at his parents.

Jacob was very easily distracted, so inquisitive about the world around him. He would point to everything that interested him, so every time a dog went by or a bird was in a tree we could not get his attention back until they had disappeared. At one point a plane flew overhead and we lost him for a good five minutes until we could no longer see it!

Aara loved dancing around, wiggling her hands and tip toeing her feet as she hummed a pretty little song that I didn't know. She may have been making it up as she went, it was the sweetest thing to watch.

We soon headed to the sandy beach and before we let the kids play with the sand toys we wandered over to the waters edge for some more family photos. The water was really cold and the children weren't too keen to stand in it (and fair enough!) so mum and dad kept a tight hold of them, snuggling in to each other to keep warm from the wind that was getting cooler as the sun dropped.

A quick break for some snake lollies (I know you are probably thinking that I mean for the children, but I actually mean for all of us) and then it was into the fun stuff!

Aara had so much fun twirling a pink ribbon around her and Jacob loved finding shells in the sand and digging in with his trucks.  We finished the shoot with some photos of Jacob walking towards the camera, a new skill he is still mastering but that he looks super cute doing, his arms out to help him balance.

With the sun all but gone and the snake lollies running low we headed back to the carpark all wrapped up, the children excited about their special dinner of fish and chips.

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www.familyphotographybynatarshamarch.com.au

Baby Tessa - Brisbane Newborn Photographer

It was a slow start to this session as older brother Elias took some time to warm up to me. He wasn't sure about coming into the studio at first but given his own time and support from mum and dad he was in and playing with toys before long.

With Elias happy in the next room Mum and I headed back in to the studio to start the session with little Tessa. She is adorable, no two ways about it. Perfect skin, beautiful eyelashes, a pout fit for a princess, she was all levels of sweetness and then some.

She snuggled into her mum quite happily, one of her favourite places to be I would guess. Listening to the heartbeat that is so familiar to her, feeling her mums firm hugs and listening to her soft whispery singing.

Elias came into the studio ready for some photos with his family and he had so much fun playing the "Don't drop me!" game with his dad before giving his new little sisters some very sweet kisses on her head.

The family had brought some sweet little teddies in to include int the session. First was a little yellow rabbit,  a comforter that I have no doubt will be very very popular with Tessa for years to come.

** tip ** 

If your child loves a certain comforter toy, buy a couple of spares. We lost ours one time and they didnt make it anymore and I have never felt so helpless as when I could not offer my daughter the one thing she needed in that moment to feel better.

So taking inspiration from the yellow in the rabbit I created a lovely buttery yellow setup for Tessa and for the most part she seemed content, awake but content.

Next we did a snuggly blanket set with a teddy that belonged to her older brother Malachy. Sadly, Malachy is not with the family anymore, having passed away even before his brother Elias was born. Elias was what is referred to as a rainbow baby, the baby born after the passing of an elder sibling.  Their mum said that Tessa was their "pot of gold" baby. Which got me thinking...

It came to our attention throughout the session that Tessa was not too happy laying on her back. It is usually my go-to for babies as they tend to be very comfortable reclining, snuggled and curled up. Tessa was not happy. So after trying to settle her into two more reclined setups and Tessa getting more and more frustrated, we tried an "upright in a basket" setup, and you know what? She loved it!

So this setup came to mind as we had been talking about Tessa and the "pot of gold" theme. I loved the idea of "gold" spilling out of the "pot" that Tessa was in and that this is not a literal image, but a concept image. Tessa, the Pot of Gold baby.

Very content in her upright position, Tessa was in a deep sleep and raced through the final photos of the day, snoozing away on her tummy on the beanbag.

www.brisbanenewbornphotography.com.au 

Jaxom Sitter Session - Brisbane Baby Photographer

When Jaxom returned for a sitter session I had high hopes for capturing a beautiful sibling photo with his awesome big sister Arwen. 

You see, seven months ago Arwen was not having anything to do with sibling photos at her brothers newborn session. No way, no how. 

I hoped with a bit of time she would come around to the idea and really felt that this session was going to be a winner. 

Well... Arwen was still not having anything to do with her brother, and she was certainly not planning on sitting next to him for even a moment. Not even with the bribe of some cheese (a girl after my own heart!) could we get her to barter on this one. 

Thankfully photoshop came to the rescue and I was able to create a sibling photo by stitching two similar images together. This is major progress from the newborn session where Arwen wouldn't even have a photo alone. 

While I much prefer to capture true moments in camera, sometimes kids like to do what they want to do and sometimes that means they dont want to cuddle their sibling. So instead of getting upset or stressed about them not doing what what I want them to do, I can just go with the flow at the session and usually bring it together afterwards.  

So while Arwen sat on her Dad's knee eating cheese we continued with the main man of the day, and holy smokes Jaxom had all the faces ready to go! 

There were surprise faces, there were laughs and occasionally there was a thoughtful look. But mostly there were laughs. 

When he started chewing on his foot I just about collapsed from how cute it was. 

Just when I thought I could take no more, his mum pulled out a cute little "old man hat" and teamed up with the rolls, the smiles and the drool it was officially cute overload. 

And just like that we were done.  Baby sessions are always short and sweet because babies get tired quickly, especially when we are chaining clothes, doing tummy time, singing and shaking rattles and tickling them, its all very exhausting for them so we keep the session as short as possible. 

I absolutely love sitter sessions, especially when its with a baby I have met as a newborn. It never ceases to amaze me how big babies grow and how quick!  I also love re-creating images from their newborn session to show how much they have grown. 

www.brisbanenewbornphotography.com.au

Brisbane Baby Photographer    |    Brisbane Newborn photographer 

Oscar - Brisbane Newborn Photographer

Baby Oscar. 

Adorable. Frowny. Snuggly. Delightful. Charming. 

He snuck into the studio in silence as his parents and I said our hellos. He snuggled peacefully on dads chest as we did paperwork and set up for the session. 

He settled into mums arms easily as we went through family photos. 

We soon found out that Oscar liked to be wrapped tight. So I wrapped him tight and settled him onto the bean bag for a sleepy photo.  He was just gorgeous laying there sound asleep. Until he wasn't... 

Yes Oscar kept a close eye on me the whole session. As hard as I tried to get him into a deep sleep, he just kept checking in to see how things were coming along.  

It wasn't a problem though, I just added more wrapped setups and snuggled him tight and he was happy enough, although always listening. 

At one point we thought he really was in a deep sleep and perhaps we could move on to the "sleeping on beanbag" photos, but it turned out he wasn't. He was still awake and he was not happy when we tried to move him onto his side. A quick cuddle and he was content again, but we had been told!

To finish the session we did my neutral toned signature setup and guess what... Oscar was so happy! 

Chilled out, reclining on the soft materials (no fluff!) he was chatting and looking around at all that he could see. Those beautiful eyes locking right on my camera and enabling me to capture the most stunning images of his inquisitive little face. 

And that was the end of the day! Oscar was dressed in his comfy clothes again and he quickly settled into his carseat for the drive home. 

www.brisbanenewbornphotography.com.au

Baby Nadia - Brisbane Newborn Photographer

I was so excited to hear from this lovely family that they were expecting a baby girl - their newborn session with little Rick from just last year was awesome!

My excitement multiplied when they sent me a photo of Nadia before our session - oh my stars her eye lashes!! And a beautiful little pout to match - I was steeling myself for this shoot just in case my heart couldn't handle so much sweetness in one little person. 

With 16 month old Rick in tow, we started the session wiht family photos, and he was such a little trooper! Calm, happy, content to watch his baby sister getting cuddles, then he came in quite happily for his photo wiht everyone too. 

He was a bit wriggly when it came to having a snuggle for himself, so we changed it up and laid his baby sister on the beanbag so he could come and give her kisses as he liked, and he certainly liked!  

Her mum had asked for lots of girly flowery styling so I had a lot of fun doing some new setups for the first time.  First we did some simple white tulip imagery, then some colourful pinks. 

She was a quite aware of everything that was going on around her, but she settled quickly into each pose on the beanbag - her mum very excited to get a photo of her in the tutu. It was so cute how she was breathing in a deep sleep and the tutu was rising and falling with her breathing. 

With the session all wrapped up in near record time we farewelled each other all agreeing it had been such a wonderful morning, everyone - including 16 month old Rick and 3 week old Nadia, had enjoyed it so much! 

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www.brisbanenewbornphotography.com.au

Brisbane Newborn Photographer   |   Brisbane Family Photographer

Oliver and Henry - Brisbane Baby Photographer

Oliver and Henry are identical twins. Thankfully, they came dressed in different outfits so for at least half of the session I could tell who was who.

We knew the boys would run out of smiles by 10am so we worked as quickly as possible to get a great variety of images in their gallery before their morning nap time crept up.

Family photos and parent photos out of the way we moved on to photos of the boys together in they really cute sailor suits.  They have recently learnt to crawl so it was quite the job trying to keep them in one place for their photos!  There are tons of images where Oliver has crept forward or Henry has gone sideways - all with a cheeky grin.

Henry soon became concerned with the texture of the fluffy mat and so I changed it up and did a new setup with a softer mat underneath. We gave the boys a little teddy bear to hold to try and keep them still for this one, but Oliver preferred to play "Dropsie" with it. Every time he would throw the little teddy, his mum would hand it back and he would laugh hysterically! It was the cutest thing.

Next, to bring some colour into their gallery we did a powder blue fluffy photo.

Now I have to confess, the boys were now naked and this was the point at which I started getting confused about who was who.

So, the first one to have a turn on the blue fluffy mat (and I want to say it was Henry, but I really am not sure) loved it. He lay there, relaxed and happy, smiling and playing peek a boo with Dad.

The second one (and for consistency sake, I will say Oliver) was not such a fan. We tried three separate times to get him to lay back and relax on the fluff and each time he was very clear that he did not like it.

So I changed tack again, and we set up a basket photo on the dark wood. This time Henry (I think)  had first turn and was neither happy nor bothered about the basket.  He was a bit like "Oh. A basket hey? Ok. Whatever." and just sat there looking around.

But when it came to (probably) Oliver's turn in the basket, it was another story. Now, Oliver had not been keen on the blue fluff, or the white fluff. But there was no fluff touching him here. He sat in the basket, he was not sure about it until... he found he could rock it like a rocking horse.

Before you know it he was rocking and giggling and having the time of his life!

Next minute, Henry realises that he has missed out on some fun! So we put the boys in the basket together and got some of the cutest photos of the day.  Until Oliver realised he wasn't able to rock the basket as much with his brother in there and started protesting again. With Henry removed he enjoyed one last rock before we pulled him out.

Thankfully the rocking basket had lifted his mood just enough hat we were able to capture an image of him on the blue fluff to match the one we had gotten earlier of his brother.

The final shots of the day were "Superman" swings. Now, I want to say that the boys enjoyed this. I think they did, there were smiles and grins. There were also quavering hands as they were swinging - hopefully from excitement and not fear! Either way they seemed to enjoy the end of the shoot and that was the end of the session!

Brisbane Baby Photographer   |    Brisbane Family Photographer

Gautier Family - Brisbane Family Photographer

As we met at the gorgeous location of Bunya Crossing Reserve, the boys were chilling out in the car while their mum and said our hellos. 

Im used to kids not being interested in me, or even shy of me when we start a session but it never takes long for them to relax and open up. 

As we walked through the gorgeous bush tracks I chatted with Jaxon about animals, there were so many around us, bush turkeys scuffling in the undergrowth, turtles bobbing their heads out of the water to see what the fuss is today. Jaxon got a bit of a fright looking into the water at one point as he thought there was a crocodile waiting to lunge out... but it was just a submerged tree trunk. 

After getting the hard part out of the way, that being the first family photo - Jaxon was straight off up a rock wall as I spent some time talking and photographing younger brother Hudson. 

Hudson was such a character, full of over-the-top smiles where his eyes were so crinkled you couldn't even see out of them anymore! 

We called Jaxon back down from the rock wall and he went and sat with his dad at the river side and looked for turtles and threw rocks as far out as they could. The splashes made the water sparkle and twinkle in the late winter sun, gosh its such a pretty time of year for photos! 

So full of energy the boys bolted off further up the track, I took my eyes off them for a moment while I changed lens on my camera and next time I looked up they had both jumped the rails of the boardwalk and were exploring underneath it! Got to love boys and their fearless explorations. 

We pulled them back up to the boardwalk and let them climb over the rails which they both loved - especially since this meant they were nearly as tall as Dad! 

Back to the waters edge for the last-light photos and a new competition. Theres an old tree that sticks out above the river level and within seconds of seeing it the boys were throwing rocks to see who could hit it first. Next thing you know a rock comes hurling over our heads as Dad has a go too! 

I love having fun with the kind of energy these boys brought and so we did a bit of a crazy photo to end the session - and it turned out to be one of my absolute favourite ever family photos! Hudson's Dad was flying flying him around with his arms outstretched like an aeroplane and his Mum and older brother Jaxon were racing and laughing in the background, then I applied a cool effect to look give a 3D feel to the image and it was just magic! 

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www.familyphotographybynatarshamarch.com.au

Brisbane Family Photographer    |     Brisbane Newborn Photographer