Why hello! It's getting close to the end of 2018 which means I'm ridiculously late in sharing these on the blog, but better late than never or something eh!? I figure I should probably share them before the 2019 contest begins! The week before Jacob was born, I entered a bunch of images in the 2018 Shoot & Share worldwide contest. This was the third year I have entered and I LOVE it so much every time! The 2018 Photo Contest broke records with 413,000 photos submitted, 175,000 unique entrants and voters, and a whopping 81 MILLION contest votes collected! You can read more about my 2016 and 2017 entries, but I thought I would just quickly share with you a few of this years images - two placed in the Top 100 in the world in their categories, four others were finalists, and others placed in the top percentiles in their categories. It's just a bit of fun, and it's extremely addictive!

Shoot & Share made me this fancy little video... so I'll pop that up first...

I'm really honoured to be able to share Grayson's incredible story with you all. It's a story that begins with absolute heartache during pregnancy, and becomes a rollercoaster journey of every emotion possible. And now, proving to be a total little miracle, beautiful little Grayson is 13 months old, and his story is one of hope, delight, love, strength and bravery! While the journey ahead won't always be easy I'm sure, he's defied the medical odds, and he is now a gorgeous, happy, cheeky, clever little toddler! His family are some of the strongest people I have ever met and it has been a total honour to photograph some of their journey! I'm so grateful that Grayson's amazing parents, Melissa and Wayne, have allowed me to share these images of hope. Melissa also agreed to share a piece she wrote for his birthday, which will give you a bit more of the back story. Prepare your tissues people...

One of my favourite things is photographing families who just want to be captured naturally - showing genuine connection and not forcing 'fun'... but just creating it by just doing the things they love to do together as a family! I was so excited about photographing the Te Kanawa family... right from the get-go, they knew they just wanted natural, unposed photos of them hanging out. I absolutely loved this shoot - this awesome family of six had a ball just mucking around in the water, exploring and chilling out together on a gorgeous Sunday evening.

And check out how beautiful / handsome these kids are too! What a gorgeous whanau. Meet Tahnee, Leighton, Georgina, Maz, Indi and Roman....

Meet the super happy, stylish, relaxed and awesome Spencer team! I photographed these guys as part of our live shoot at our latest Through Your Eyes Photography Workshop! They were an absolute dream to photograph... so much fun, full of personality and laughter, and up for anything!

Ivy Roux, melting hearts from the moment she was born! This absolute little sweetheart came into the studio at 7 days old... after she arrived about 15 days after her due date! She was soooo amazingly placid and sleepy and just utterly delightful the entire time! She also brought in all of her important people... Mum and Dad (who were over in Dunedin from Singapore to give birth to her!), her special grandparents who live here, and her amazingly wonderful great-grandmother, whom she is named after. This was a divine shoot... there was so much love in the room for this darling little girl...

And she smiled! So perfect...

I was fortunate enough to meet Elliot, Paige, Huxley and Toby in their home, to photograph a wee slice of daily life for a NZ Rugby edition of The Parenting Place magazine! I LOVED this shoot... natural, happy, family orientated lifestyle photos around home, with two seriously cute little kids. Huxley and Toby just melted my heart... and obviously melt their parents too! These guys are such an awesome family unit - check out the little video and magazine article on the All Blacks website here.

And I also love The Parenting Place and what they stand for - Family is everything! If you want little snippets of encouragement and awesome advice and resources for all the challenges and joys of parenting, their website is well worth a look.

Wasn't it just yesterday that I was writing a wee blog in the days leading up to Eli's birth?! 2.5 years later... we are perhaps just days away from meeting the second little Hutton button! We can't wait to find out who has been hiding and growing inside me! But there's also a million things to do beforehand, and no doubt this little bubs is probably easier on the inside than on the outside, so I'm content waiting if he or she decides they are not quite ready for the outside world by due date ;)

I'm totally not any more prepared this time around than I was last time... it's sooo surreal still, and I think it will feel that way until I'm holding my precious new love in my arms! And then I'm sure it will feel like it's exactly as it was always meant to be... as if life beforehand was somewhat incomplete or something.