Catherine and Simon came up from Invercargill for a maternity shoot just before Christmas... and I am now playing catch up with some blogs... because this little bundle has already been born!! Soon you will get to meet the adorable little face behind this bump too...

Pregnancy is such a mystical and beautiful time of life - maternity shoots aim to capture something of three people... one of whom no-one has ever seen! I'm so glad Catherine and Simon booked a last minute maternity shoot, only a few days before the wee poppet arrived into this world!! They were so excited, but were awaiting his arrival patiently, as they needed him to hold on until after Christmas! We set out for beautiful evening light, and we found it...

Pregnancy really suited Catherine, and she and Simon were awesome to work with - they were like a model couple, who were willing to get really cold feet!

Loving this beachy evening light...

Beautiful Catherine looks adoringly at her husband...

...who is thinking his wife is pretty darn hot right now!

Catherine is a French teacher in Invercargill, so it was awesome to be able to include some different little things that were personal to them. Bébé à bord means what it looks like... 'Baby On Board'... cute!

And I was the only one privvy to the gender and name of their precious wee baby... but now that wee Ezra has been born, I can share these!

_Catherine had the perfect bump. It was called 'Baby Pea' during the pregnancy, (because their last name is Patterson), so they wanted to include these cute little pea-pod toys they got given too!

And just after Catherine, Simon and Baby Pea set off for the evening, the sun set on another gorgeous day, lighting the sky many different colours.

I'm sure you are both enjoying wee Ezra being out in this world so much now! I can't wait to blog his newborn shoot very soon! Thanks for letting me be part of this exciting stage of life! xx

Kate is 34 weeks pregnant, and is looking fabulous! I was very excited about doing this maternity shoot for Kate. She is an absolutely gorgeous girl anyway... but give her a baby bump, and she glows.

Kate is a photographer too, and has started her own great business, Still Waters Photography, in Te Anau. Photographing another photographer always adds an extra load of pressure! But Kate told me she trusted my ideas, and was a blank slate - allowing me the opportunity to be creative. I had an idea I had wanted to play with for a while. For this I needed a grassy field, a cute little white chair, and some gorgeous soft, golden light.

Step One was a grassy field. So, on Thursday Helen and I set out on an outing to Outram. I found a perfect spot and was sold on it for the shoot on Friday. We also found real fruit ice-cream. So that was a bonus.

Step Two was a chair. On Wednesday I was having coffee with Rebecca McSkimming and I happened to mention I was just heading to an antique store to find a little white wooden chair. She told me she had one at home, and said I could borrow it if I wanted. Then in some crazy coincidence, she text me 2 minutes after we had left saying it was actually already in the back of her truck! So, ta-daaa! A perfect little white chair, just as I had imagined. Thanks Becs!

Step Three was perfect light. If we are honest, I had no control over this one, and with a mid-morning shoot in autumn, it could have gone either way! We were super lucky though, and out came the gorgeously soft, golden light... just as I had imagined.

Kate, you are so, so beautiful. You are going to be a fantastic mother! I can't wait to meet baby 'monkey' xx

Unfortunately Kate's husband, Mark, was unable to come over for the shoot as he was busy running their farm in Te Anau. So Kate invited along our good friend Kristy to join in the fun! Not only was she a great model and friend, she also acted as my wonderful assistant - holding my cameras, and even finding great little locations along the way.

Kristy is a stunner too. She brings sunshine to my life xx

On the way out to Outram, I was telling Kate and Kristy about the perfect little field I found and how excited I was about it. The thing is though, when I was location scouting, I didn't actually get out of the car. What I didn't know was that there were sheep at the end of the field, no real access (especially for a pregnant lady who we weren't going to let jump the fence), annnd... it smelled really bad. Whoops. We managed to find equally perfect and much more accessible and open field just down from it though. Phew!

I loooove this kind of backlighting - it is so feminine and gentle. Kate and Mark know they are having a wee girl, so I think it is perfect. The parasols are also those used at their wedding.

Kate has a special fondness for horses, so we managed to find some of them along the way too...

We then drove right into Outram, to find some locations for slightly more fun, bright photos, as Kate had brought along some meaningful props she wanted to use too. By this stage the sun was beaming down, creating some sharp shadows, which sometimes, you just have to make the most of...

This ribbon surrounded Kate and Mark's wedding cake... another awesome way to represent their marriage and their love in their wee poppet's birth.

Kate and Mark both had well-loved toys as children, and I know their new wee girl will be even more well-loved by them. Meet Panda and Popples... Kate and Mark's favourite childhood toys. Popples is a bit evil looking because Mark coloured its eyes in red when he was little. We will let that slide though...

Kate and Mark are awaiting the arrival of wee 'Monkey', as they fondly call her. Pregnancy is such an exciting time, full of anticipation, hope and joy. Yes, there are many discomforts throughout, but I am sure it will all be worth it when she arrives. And I have no doubt she will grow up to be a cute, cheeky wee monkey...

Kate, you are doing an amazing job - you make pregnancy look so easy and cruisy! You and Mark will be fantastic parents and I am so looking forward to meeting your wee bub.

It was so nice to hang out with you and Kristy in the awesomely hot and wonderful sun, and to capture this amazing time in your life! I hope your last few weeks of pregnancy are easy and you are able to put your feet up and let Mark do everything around the house!

Mwah! xoxo

I am super excited about sharing this maternity post with you. Pregnancy has to be one of the most extraordinary, intriguing, and miraculous stages of life ever possible. Even as I sift through over a thousand photos of this precious baby bump, I am still in awe of the fact that there is a living person inside there - growing, learning, and being loved and nutured every second of the day. How does that stomach not burst at the seams?!

Sarah and Nick are very special to me - Sarah is one of my two beautiful older sisters, and Nick is my brother-in-law. They are just two weeks away (give or take some!) from becoming first-time parents, and I have not a single doubt in my mind that they will do a fantastic job.

Sarah makes pregnancy look and sound ridiculously easy. Quite often over the past 9 months, I have questioned whether she IS actually pregnant, or if she just has a giant balloon up her top that she blows up a bit more every day. She assures me there is a baby in there, and I don't know of any balloons that can kick and wriggle like that. But still... Sarah is a mere two weeks from her due date, and she is full of energy, healthy as anything, and she is looking incredible. Her bump is AMAZING - from the back she looks tiny, and you would never know she is pregnant! From the front, she is absolutely bursting. She has been teaching, dancing at our wedding, doing housework, hosting guests, and cruising through the preparation for this new precious wee life in our big family.

This is the first time someone so close to me has been pregnant, and it has just struck me how incredible life really is. Now all we do is wait... wait until little Baby Truman is ready to enter this world for good.

Sarah wanted a real mix of images - fun, beautiful, humourous, sincere, natural outdoor images, and more "studio" type images... so we found a range of different locations and props, and spent the entire day shooting her giant belly! Yep, a whole day. That's what you do when you are family! However, Nick was allowed some time off to play on his iPhone, and we set off with just Sarah for the morning to scout out locations!

Yep, did a wee happy dance when I found this beautifully lit spot amongst the trees.

Hot, hot, hot!! You look amaaazing Sarah!

Love this! Mum was on traffic control while we both lay in the middle of the road.

After lunch, we set out again with Nick in tow, and both Liam and Mum sharing the job of second shooting for me! So it was a real family affair - and between our two big Nikon cameras, a wee point-and-shoot camera, and a pocket video camera... Invercargill didn't know what had hit it!

Hide and seek anyone?

Unfortunately Dad was away for the weekend, but we got a few beautiful shots with Sarah and soon-to-be Nana! Photos of family are so, so important. More and more over this past horrific week in New Zealand, I think we have all realised how precious family is, and how photographs of loved ones are clung on to at times like this.

I know Nick and Sarah will be naturally amazing parents. Sarah has been dreaming of being a mother since she was veeeery young, and it has been so awesome to see the way Nick has supported and adored her, and loved their little baby right through her pregnancy. He will be a fantastic father, and Sarah will be an incredible mother. She even told us a few years ago that she couldn't wait to clean up the mess her kids make and bake them truffles all the time!! I have a feeling that desire might fade over time...

We found plenty of ducks and some beautiful geese!!

Even though she was 8 months pregnant, Sarah was keen to try heaps of different things all day, to get some really diverse images. We even had a very quick wee play at a Carnival!

So you may be wondering what the heck Stardust and Watermelons have anything to do with a maternity shoot. And rightly so. So - watermelons? Well, they are just plain fun.

And Stardust? Well, near the beginning of their pregnancy, Sarah was trying to pin Nick down to discuss baby names, and he was obviously not ready for that, because his only suggestion for a long time was... Stardust. Classy, Nick. It caught on though, and the world now knows in-utero baby Truman as "Stardust". I honestly think I am going to have trouble not actually calling the baby that when it is born - it has become so entrenched in my mind.

No, the words are not photoshopped on... Sarah got the stickers out and we had some fun!

Mum knitted these gorgeous wee booties for Stardust... and I will give her all the credit for the cute wee blocks photo she took with them while she assisted me!

Nick is a die-hard Apple fan. He is pretty attached to his iPhone, his iMac, and his iPad. So it is only fitting that Stardust is pictured on the iPad, and that it is packed full of digital picture books to read. I was taking this shot...when suddenly naughty Uncle Liam popped up behind...!

Sarah, Nick, and Stardust - I love you all to bits and I cannot WAIT to be an Aunty!! It is very special being able to document this awesome time in your lives. And as you know, I have so many more photos to give you! Sarah, you are like super-pregnant-lady... you are so beautiful. Stardust is going to be the most treasured and photographed little poppet in the world.

Stardust, we all truly can't wait to meet you, and Liam and I are very much looking forward to being your favourite Aunty and Uncle! Make sure you just hold on in there until we are back from the Coromandel though... xoxoxo