I love collaborating with other photographers and playing with gorgeous models!! Stunning Zoe is an incredibly talented dancer from Balclutha - she was so super amazing... despite having to stand out in the freezing night air in little tutus! We joined forces with Shelley and Bailey from Shelley Povey Photography to play around with some different lighting techniques and let our creative juices flow. Thanks soooo much for sharing your talent with us Zoe! You are so incredibly beautiful and graceful, and we really appreciated you completely numbing your toes on pointe just for us!!
We took a beautiful ballerina out of the studio... beyond the tight hair buns, barres, mirrors and etiquette, and into the soft sand and the bright city lights, where there are no rules. Freedom to just dance with passion.
I love collaborating with other photographers and playing with gorgeous models!! Stunning Zoe is an incredibly talented dancer from Balclutha - she was so super amazing... despite having to stand out in the freezing night air in little tutus! We joined forces with Shelley and Bailey from Shelley Povey Photography to play around with some different lighting techniques and let our creative juices flow. Thanks soooo much for sharing your talent with us Zoe! You are so incredibly beautiful and graceful, and we really appreciated you completely numbing your toes on pointe just for us!!
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My job is the best! I get to work with awesome couples... best friends who adore each other! What a flippin' big privilege! My absolute favourite thing to photograph is people in love. We give complimentary engagement shoots, because we KNOW the value of them! Tina and Josh weren't too sure about doing a shoot before their wedding, but they have since told me it was the best thing they could have done! Now they won't be nervous for their big day... sweet deal. Josh loves the beach, and Tina loves beautiful expansive views... so we mixed it up with a bit of both! Totally didn't expect to have two completely different types of weather and light when we just we drove up and over a wee hill, but that's Dunedin for ya I guess! And it's what I love about shooting outdoors... it always provides different opportunities and challenges - I love playing with gorgeous natural light! Gives me warm fuzzies seeing awesome love like Tina and Josh's! Oh I love your smile Tina! You are so beautiful and funky! I'm so looking forward to seeing you as a stunning bride! Doesn't look like it's going to end well... Thinking we weren't going to see any sort of view anywhere in the foggy haze we were in, we left behind the moody clouds and drove up the hill quickly... to find gorgeous sunlight beginning to set down over the harbour! MmmmMmm... it took me forever to drive home, because I kept stopping to photograph our gorgeous city in this beautiful light! Tina and Josh, you totally rocked your shoot. It's got me so excited about your wedding day - I know it's going to be full of love and fun! xoxo
Meet Alix and Johnny and their gorgeous kiddlywinks, Matt and Hayley! They are one beautiful little family and we can't wait to see them again in October for their big wedding day in Port Chalmers! We decided it was super important to include Matt and Hayley in the engagement shoot, because they are obviously such a massive part of Alix & Johnny's lives and their relationship. They have been together over 5 years, and the next big adventure of their love is about to start - marriage! These kids are really ridiculously cute! Hayley is about 11 months old, and has the sweetest little face and cheeky grin, and four year old Matt is full of energy and personality! I just loved watching Alix and John interacting with their beautiful children - they obviously completely and utterly ADORE each other, and have such playful and loving relationships! Here is where all the mothers reading this have a mini heart attack, and all the fathers wanna go out and see if they can chuck their son even higher... We tired the kids out with running around, boxing, getting thrown in the air, and doing flips... and then we let Grandma take them away, so we had some time with the awesome couple by themselves! They spent most of the time fighting with each other. But not the yelling type, or the silent treatment type, or the evil looks type... more like the flirting, giggling, poking, hassling, play-fighting type! Alix and Johnny up a tree... K I S S I N G!! These two love birds used to spend hours and hours sitting talking in a huuuuge tree at a primary school when they first got together... so a giant tree was a must for their photos! Alix, I cannot wait to see you as a bride on the 26.10.13! You are going to be GORGEOUS! These two beautiful engagement rings have the four different family birth stones in them! Soooo pretty! Alix and John, you guys are so awesome together - and it was soooo amazing watching your incredible parenting. You are such a fun family... bring on October!! xoxox
Meet Dunedin's hottest Salsa troup! Where are the men, you may ask?! They don't need 'em! Little did I know, salsa is no longer just a partner dance... these Dunedin gals are rocking the NZ stage in performance troups! Last year they took out the NZ Salsa Solo Competitions, and this year they rocked in at second place! So impressive! We had an awesome afternoon getting strange looks around the gardens from all the people passing by... but it was full of laughs and good times... and I got a sneaky peek into their costumes and dance routine for the big competitions the next weekend. Congrats girls, you are an incredibly talented team, and it was so awesome to work with you to get these shots! All the best xx Stunning! And something a little cheeky to end with :P
Three months ago today, my life was touched so deeply. And I want to share a bit of the story with you. It's a personal story, and it's taken me a while to put any sort of words together. I write, and I discard... and I write, and I discard. I think constantly about it, and form the perfect words in my head. But then I come to write again... and I'm somewhat blank. But I want to honour a little wee life that has had a powerful influence. A perfect baby girl who unfortunately never made it to see the light of day. Sadly my darling niece, Victoria Kate, was stillborn at 38 weeks, to my beautiful sister and her husband Nick, for no known reason. I want to honour the strength, faith, and incredible love and positivity that Sarah and Nick have. They have so graciously accepted this new and unexpected journey. While this has been a hugely sad time, they are filled with God's peace, and continue to trust in His goodness, which has been proven over and over again during the past three months. They are so thankful for the opportunity to have carried this precious little girl for nearly nine months, and continue to be the most amazing and adoring parents to two year old Penelope. Above all, we honour God for his peace beyond all understanding, for giving Sarah and Nick another beautiful daughter, and for giving them the strength needed to carry on without her on earth. Many of you have seen a couple of maternity photos that I posted along the journey of Sarah's pregnancy... but because we did small maternity shoots over a few months as her belly grew, I never had the chance to blog the finished product before the unimaginable happened. I am aware this is a sensitive topic. But I do really want to share the love that was poured into this 'bump', the beauty that is my sister, the cuteness that is Penelope, and the wonderfulness that is this family. I want to celebrate the joy Victoria brought to our lives over those months, and the blessing she has been to so many people... not hide it away as if it never happened. I want you to look and smile! The hope and anticipation of a second little baby in the house was definitely obvious - we all couldn't wait to meet the new little button in our family. We are a very close family, and I'm an extremely proud aunty... so I jumped at the opportunity to go down to Invercargill for the month of June. I was going firstly as a sister and an aunty - to be there to help around the house and look after Penelope (who you have seen on here many times before!) when Sarah went into labour and was in hospital. And secondly as a photographer - to capture the first moments at the birth, and to do newborn photos as soon as possible afterwards. Sarah makes pregnancy look easy - full of energy, incredibly healthy, and totally radiant, with a perfect bump. She is absolutely gorgeous inside and out. (And Penelope? Well she is clearly a model in the making...!!) But after I'd been in Invercargill only a day, Sarah realised that she hadn't felt the baby move for a while. Some tests and checks later that afternoon sadly revealed no heartbeat. All of a sudden, the day turned from the excitement of a new baby arriving at any moment, to coming to understand that their precious little baby had passed away, for no apparent reason. This was obviously a huge shock after a very healthy pregnancy... especially being at full-term. We were all heart-broken. Sarah was induced later that evening, and perfect little Victoria was born at 5:50am on the 4th of June, without breath. I am now so incredibly grateful that I was able to do maternity shots for Sarah as her bump grew, and that they have photographs to remind them of the joy and happiness their daughter has brought them, for the rest of their lives. I am also incredibly thankful that I was down in Invercargill and able to photograph beautiful Victoria just after she was born, so they have a record of everything - her little ears, little hands, little feet, little nose. They have memories of their short time with her they can look back on as they work through their grief. Arguably the most important shoot of my life. Unfortunately stillbirth is not as uncommon as I had thought, and so often there are no clear causes. Apparently six in every thousand babies born in NZ every year are stillborn. And Sarah and Nick join the approximately 300 families each year in Australia and NZ who lose a baby close to term with no known cause. I want to acknowledge those parents who have lost loved little babies through miscarriage, stillbirth, and health issues. It's heartbreaking. I cannot even imagine what that must be like for a parent. As an aunty, I've only experienced a touch of the devastation. And I also acknowledge that everyone is going to have very different experiences too. We have been blown away by how strong and positive Sarah and Nick are, but of course it is so difficult, and there won't be a day go by where they don't think of their beautiful daughter. Sarah and Nick had prepared Penelope so well for having a little sister or brother, and what that would mean for her. She knew Mummy and Daddy would be very busy, that the baby would cry lots, and that sometimes the baby would need lots of cuddles. She loved to listen to the heartbeat and cuddle Mummy's tummy, and was excited about having a baby at home. It has been so incredible to see the mind of a two year old processing the fact that Mummy and Daddy's baby had to go and live with Jesus, instead of living at home. She has understood far more than we could have ever imagined. The day Victoria was born, I lay silently listening to Penelope praying, unprompted, to God in the middle of the night... "Dear Dog, Mummy Daddy bit sad. Mummy no baby". "Dear Dog, Mummy tummy get better. Baby Toria in hop-dop... live Jesus now." I will never forget that tiny, sweet little voice speaking in the dark, as tears trickled down my cheeks. So incredibly precious. Victoria Kate means 'Victorious' and 'Pure'... and she is definitely nothing short of that. Her little life has taught me so much. Love you forever little button. Sarah, Nick, and Penelope - you are beyond amazing. We are truly blessed to be your family, and to journey alongside you. Love and hugs always xoxoxox This is something I feel very passionate about, after truly experiencing the importance of those photographs. Without knowing I was writing this at the time, Sarah said to me this morning, "If I could give one piece of advice to anybody in this situation… it would totally be to have some nice photographs taken". I would really like to bless other families that I hear about who sadly have the same outcome, and really want to be able to offer sensitive and private photographs of the baby as a gift to other families who lose children due to stillbirth or sickness. Please get in touch with me as soon as possible if you hear of this happening to anyone you know around Dunedin - if I can help to be part of the grief and healing process through offering photos shortly after the birth, then I will do my best xx
I also hope this opens up some discussion - I think it's so healthy to talk about these things which affect so many families, yet are rarely discussed. Please feel free to discuss, comment, share, think... it's good for all of us :) I love colour, I loooove playful affection, and I love engagement shoots! Elyse and Adrian pulled themselves away from the dairy farming life in Heriot to the big smokes of Dunedin for an afternoon, so that we could capture their fun and light-hearted relationship! I wholeheartedly adored this shoot! They gave me many disclaimers beforehand - 'Adrian hates cameras', 'we are both really unphotogenic', 'we are so nervous'... but it was like they had already done a million photo shoots before and they were here to nail it for this one! And that they did... They are so cute together! I know that is very unmanly for me to say about Adrian, but seriously... they just laughed, smiled, were cheeky to each other, and showed so much affection the whole time! And how can you not feel happy looking at so many colourful balloons! Love love love... How stunning is Elyse going to be as a bride?! I can't wait to see... she is so beautiful... and one of those girls who just oozes happiness! Seriously you guys, you were amazing! Thanks so much for coming all the way up - this just proved to me over and over again that your wedding is going to be amaaaazing! I'm sure March will roll around super quickly xoxo
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