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 :)

Beautiful baby Jessica

Around two years ago, I photographed a stunning baby girl. I was so excited to be contacted to be asked to photograph her newest little cousin, Jessica, who also lives in Sydney's North West. Their Grandma was at each of the shoots, and it was lovely seeing their family grow. A couple of days before this session, I bought a new prop. It's an old style school desk. Ordinarily, I am not a very "proppy" photographer. I tend to keep photos natural and minimal with only a few props like baskets and my hammock. However, this beautiful desk stood out to me and I had to purchase it. I brought it along to my session, not too sure if I would use it. When I arrived, I learnt that Mum is actually a school teacher. I knew I needed to go and get my new prop to use at Jessica's shoot. She was a little unsettled, so I had to be very patient and slowly lower her into position. It probably took 5 minutes to lower her into place. I am glad I persevered though, as I love this image.

I also love the 'newborn sack' image that we did and then we progressed to the other snuggly poses on the beanbag.

Some time ago, one of my friends from Perth posted a photo on Facebook of four generations of her family. Each person was holding a frame. I thought it was a lovely way to represent four generations. Jessica's Grandma, and great Grandma were at the shoot, so I thought I would try this shot with them. I love how it worked out. I would like to credit the photographer that my friend went to, as this image wasn't my idea. Her business is Karin Gethin Photography.

Behind the scenes…Sydney Newborn Photographer

I bought this sweet silk sack from the very talented prop maker, Little Noggins, and I couldn't wait to use it. When you hold it against your cheek, it's so soft, you almost can't feel anything! My style is very natural and neutral, however, there's a small amount of Anne Geddes inside me somewhere! When I photographed this sweet newborn in Carlingford, I pictured her in a silk sack, in earthy brown tones. Of course, newborns cannot sit and support themselves, and newborn safety is a priority. Actually, it's more than a priority, it's the most important thing in the shoot. Their safety and comfort cannot be compromised. That is why Mum is holding her the entire time. The magic of making this shot is in photoshop.

My beautiful friend and client saw this image on my screen and asked how I did it. So I thought I would share a behind the scenes look at how I photographed my 'baby in a sack' image.

This is the image:

And the making of 'Baby in a sack'