For the past nearly two years I've just been relishing the opportunity to have time with my two little men who melt my heart and push all my buttons and just generally amaze me with energy levels! When I remember, I do occasionally share some personal photos on my public Instagram, so feel free to check out @kimberleycheyne if you want more regular updates! And next year will probably see me working about the same amount as I have this year - just taking on very occasional shoots that really excite me, and that I can fit in around my boys sleeping (something they occasionally do). I've got a few ideas I'd love to run with next year sometime too, but family will always come first, so it will kinda be on my boys terms! :)

Anyway, at the start of the year I entered the Shoot & Share Contest again. This is a massive, international photography contest - to put it into perspective, this year there were 583,150 images entered over 25 categories. So, it's big.  I'm mostly just blogging about this for my own annual record of this contest before the 2020 contest is underway... and as a way to actually quickly and easily choose a few random photos to share with you, out of the thousands I take! Eli and Jake have grown up sooo much since all of these photos (mostly from 2018).

This year was the first year that I decided to enter all personal images. I loooove capturing day to day things of my boys. It's all building up a big collection of documentary images of their preschool life which I know I'm going to be really grateful for when they are big, smelly, grunty teenagers.

So, here's a mix of photos that were either Finalist images, or ones that placed in the top percentages in their categories...
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First up - the That Just Happened Category... because bloopers are always fun...

It's not unusual for me to photograph my kids daily. The good, the messy, the mundane, the laughter, the tears, the chaos... the daily adventures of two little boys. Documenting little snippets of our day and the relationships they have with different people gives me a creative kick, keeps me sane as a stay-at-home Mum, and totally fills me with joy! I often don't get time to edit or share the random daily life photos I take at home though... even though they are the ones that mean the most to me and flood me with memories. So I'm retrospectively 'Photo A Day'-ing it here on the blog for January. For years I've loved following a few amazing photographers recording the first month of every year with a photo a day, so I'm not claiming this brilliance as my own... I'm just gonna run with their idea! But I AM totally claiming these two gorgeous critters as my own! I LOVE doing day-to-day with them (despite the times they drive me bonkers).

So here's to January 2019 with two little brothers... Eli (3.5) and Jake (11 months)...

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.