Newborn studio in Oatlands

For a very long time, I travelled to clients homes for newborn sessions. There are some advantages to this. The main advantage is that Mum and Dad don't have to worry about packing up and heading out the door for their photoshoot. However, there are many advantages to the studio model. The main advantage is that I can have consistency of light. By using my lights, I know and control the space to produce the best lit images possible. Another advantage is that all of my props, hats, blankets and accessories are available should anyone ask for them. For these reasons, I am formally shifting my newborn focus from that of an on-location photographer, to a studio based one. My home studio is located in Oatlands. Most people haven't heard of Oatlands. It's a small, leafy suburb nestled between Carlingford, North Rocks, Dundas and North Parramatta. It's a short drive from the Inner West, including Concord, Canada Bay, Picnic Point and the Hills area, including Castle Hill and Baulkham Hills.

In the short term, I will still continue to service Sydney as a mobile Sydney newborn photographer. When the studio is established, I will make a decision as to whether or not this is a service I will continue with.

I look forward to bringing you some progress photos of my little studio coming to life. We will be having a mini version of "The Block" going on here. In the meantime, I've been practicing using the space with some little clients.

This is sweet baby Lewis. Lewis came to the studio with Mum and Grandma, and he was a dream for my inaugural studio newborn shoot. I hope you love Lewis' images as much as I do.

A head full of hair | Hills newborn photographer

I love it when my newborn clients have a head full of hair. I always ask the Mum if she had heartburn, to see if the old wives tale is true that babies with a lot of hair cause heartburn. They often answer yes, but lets face it, heartburn is pretty common in pregnancy, so I am still none the wiser if this myth is true or not! This handsome boy was awake for quite a while during his session. As a result, we got so many varying faces as he moved around and looked in different directions. I always love these shots. Though they may not be the perfectly posed shots, each one is so unique and truly starts to showcase snippets of his emerging personality. I hope you love these images as much as I do.

Sweet 8 month old baby | Inner West baby photographer

I get asked a lot what my favourite age to photograph is. It's a hard question to answer, as all ages are precious for a lot of reasons. The newborn baby is precious and new and only small for the shortest time. I would always recommend capturing that age. Children are delightful at all ages. Their playfulness, default happiness and willingness to have fun is always fun to capture. One age group that I very much love is that sweet and short period of time after your baby has learnt to sit up well but before they are on the move. It's generally somewhere between 6 and 10 months old. These babies are always fun to capture and those images will make your heart melt for years to come. Babies of this age are easy to keep content. They need to be well rested, have a full belly and they are willing to have fun. You can always capture beautiful smiles and you can start to see glimpses of their personality. There is just a small window of opportunity for these sessions. Well, really a couple of months. Once baby is on the move, they fast enter toddlerhood, the hardest age to photograph! So enjoy these pictures whilst you can still get them. If you want to book one of these sessions, you are welcome to come to me at Oatlands, in Sydney's Hills area, or I can come to you. I serve the Sydney area, from the city, Northern Sydney, the Inner West and the Hills area.

Please enjoy these pictures of this handsome 8 month old…

Breakfast Point Newborn Photographer

I met this beautiful family in the lovely Breakfast Point. One thing I love about my job is seeing the various places to live around Sydney. I will often come home with location envy! I do live in a lovely suburb, but I have eclectic taste and I love seeing the various places to live. Breakfast Point is such a perfect location, so close to Burwood, Concord and Canada Bay and easy to get to and from Sydney. This isn't a real estate blog, but I have just come back to the office from dropping off this client's order including a stunning acrylic and I fell in love with the suburb all over again. This family are so adorable. You will see, they are very beautiful, but they are equally beautiful on the inside. I feel very blessed that my clients are always so warm and inviting and I love getting to know the families when I am with them. This beautiful little baby boy started by letting me take some pictures of him awake. He posed perfectly for me, looking straight into my lens. His older brother did a great job when it was time to get the sibling and family shots, and spent the rest of the time alternating between playing with his toys and checking out what we were doing. I hope you enjoy these images of this genetically blessed family :)

Melrose Park Baby Photographer

Meet adorable baby Olivia. I love all of her baby features; her tiny toes, her pudgy legs, her precious baby smile and of course, that beautiful hair.

Baulkham Hills Newborn Photographer

This beautiful baby boy was booked in for his photos when he was about the size of an apple (because baby books always compare growth to fruit for some reason!!) It was so exciting finding out that he was a boy and meeting him and his family for the first time. I've been told by countless clients all over Sydney, that I am very patient, some even say "the baby whisperer". I wouldn't ordinarily describe myself as patient, however, for newborns I very much relax and let the baby fall into their own pattern. They are so little and new and I feel that it's important to make sure that we are working to their clock and not ours. Sometimes, baby is just having an off day, they might have a sore belly or they just might be struggling to get into a good sleep for some much wanted rest. I try always to be patient, and follow their cues.

For this session, Huxley was quite unsettled, in fact, I returned another day for the family photos. However, we ended up with a gallery bursting with images I just loved. I had trouble culling them back for this blog post. You will see, he's as cute as a button.

What's in my bag?

A lot of clients are interested in photography, and will ask me questions about my gear and what tools I use to get my job done. So I thought I would do a blog post about what's in my bag, and more importantly, why! Nikon D600 - This is my main camera. I use this camera most of the time. I upgraded to this camera when I wanted to explore video more. I will discuss this a little later. What I love about this camera is: * It has 24MP, this is enough to be fantastic, but not so much that you need a new computer to process your images * The ISO performance is incredible. When shooting in low light, you may need to increase your ISO. Sometimes, a lot. This camera has usable images all the way past any ISO I use in regular sessions. * If you happen to underexpose an image, you can adjust your exposure in post without getting very much noise at all. This sets this camera apart from the D700 * It has dual memory card slots. I use both, so that I am backing up on the go. I have had a memory card fail on me before, and I never want to be in a position again where I am at the mercy of a recovery program (thankfully, the program worked!) * It has video. I believe more and more that video is our future. I love looking at stills of my children, but as they have grown, those sweet videos that capture their expression, their squeaky, high voices and their cute mannerisms are incredibly precious to me. I want to give this to my clients, too. The biggest downfall of this camera is the oil problem, that Nikon seems unwilling to address. Unfortunately, I've had this issue twice now, so this camera is not one I would recommend for a landscape photographer.

Nikon D700 - This is my backup camera. When you hire a professional, you are hiring someone who has a plan B, should plan A fail. From time to time, cameras will misbehave, and thus, we have a backup. The D700 is old technology now, but it's a beautiful camera. So much so, that the second hand market for this camera is strong and there is high demand for it. Lots of photographers lament that it is no longer in production. We are all hoping for a genuine replacement for this, and Nikon rumours are humming that this may be announced in September.

Speaker: I have a small bluetooth speaker in my bag. During newborn sessions, I play the MagicSleep app on my iPad, and play it through the speaker to soothe the baby (and me!)

Video Mic Pro: As mentioned above, I am loving video at the moment and I have a great mic, to ensure that the sound quality is amazing. This image looks like roadkill, though I promise, it's actually a very good mic.

Speedlight:

I generally shoot with available light, but there are times when I might love a location without ideal lighting, or I might be trying to shoot a larger group, so I need more light so that I can close down and get everyone in focus. I have a speed light with me at all times, and I will often have a soft box with me to diffuse the light. This image was taken against a stackstone wall that I love to use. The light is limited at this location, so using the speed light in my Westcott 28" is the perfect solution to create the vision I had.

This is another image taken with a speed light bounced off the ceiling in a dark hallway;

Now we are getting to the fun (i.e. expensive) part. Lenses. Oh, sweet, sweet lenses.

Nikon 24-70mm 2.8

I love this lens. I call this my workhorse lens, as it's on my camera most of the time. The focal length is perfect for general photography, especially newborns. It's a zoom lens, so it is really versatile. Here are a couple of examples of images taken with this lens;

Nikon 70-200mm 2.8

This lens costs more than some cars, but it's totally worth it. It gives the most beautiful bokeh (pronounced boke-eh). Bokeh is the lovely background blur that you get when a client is in focus, but the background is out of focus. This lens sings when used at f2.8 at 200mm. I will often use this lens outdoors. Sometimes, I strap two cameras on a harness, and use a mixture of this lens for lovely bokeh and background compression and something wider for full family and environmental shots. These are images taken with the 70-200mm lens;

Sigma 85mm 1.4

I wasn't too sure I'd need this focal length, since I have the 70-200, however, this lens can open up to f1.4. What does this mean? More beautiful background blur, but I am not quite as far away from my subject. This is a lovely portrait lens, and I often use it for head shots. These were taken with my 85mm;

Nikon 50mm 1.4

I don't use this lens as much anymore for stills, as the 24-70mm covers this range. Where I would consider it, is in very low light. I can open up to f1.4, which will allow lots of light in. However, this lens is my go to lens when shooting video, as it is light, so it reduces camera shake and it can open up wide to create background blur.

Of course, I have a tonne of different batteries, camera straps, and spare memory cards in my bag, as you can never be too prepared. My actual bag is a Lowepro backpack. I used to have a cute handbag, but I outgrew that when I bought too much equipment. The backpack distributes the weight evenly over my shoulders, as all of that equipment weighs a lot!

I hope you have enjoyed the tour of my camera bag :)

Besotted siblings | Castle Hill Newborn Photographer

I've known this family for years, and I photographed them in Parramatta Park, when their now five year old was about one. They had room in their hearts and home for one more baby to complete their family. And when you make such adorable children, why not! The last few weeks of pregnancy have been so hard, with Mum on bed rest. Finally, on 18 July 2014, at 35 weeks, he was born. He was such a tiny baby. The photos don't really do that justice, which is why we also photographed him beside his teddy bear. Very soon, he will be bigger than that bear! I've never seen siblings so besotted. Ever! Sometimes, one sibling will be particularly in love with the new baby. Mostly, they don't mind either way. But all three of Franklin's siblings adore him. His five year old brother kept stroking him so tenderly, and kept putting his cheek next to Franklin's mouth and declaring "he is kissing me". I asked his big sister if I could take him now. She looked right into my eyes and said "no"! She wanted him all for herself, to shower him with love and affection. It really filled my heart watching them all. Clearly, Franklin has captured the hearts of his whole family. I imagine that soon, he will be woo'ing them all with giggles and smiles and will have everyone wrapped around their little fingers.

Baby Girl and her brother | Hills Newborn Photographer

This beautiful baby girl was already a couple of weeks old when I photographed her. I speak about "older newborns" often on my blog. I do get older newborns book in from time to time. The first thing I do is book in as soon as possible. Due to time constraints, we decided to do this session in two parts; the first part was this precious baby girl on her own and the second part was with her family. I am so glad we chose this, as the newborn session was quite long. When baby is a few weeks old, they already get used to being left alone to sleep and they may not move from pose to pose so easily. The plus side is that we often get more awake shots from these sessions, which are just divine. However, with patience I always get the images I need. This is one beautiful family, as you will see. Baby girl has the milkiest, smoothest skin. I could run my finger over her cheek all day long. And when I met her 2 year old brother, I longed for those days when my children were little. He is so happy, curious and full of smiles.

We had a lovely session and I am sure you will agree, they are so very, very cute!