The importance of cropping

When modern cameras take pictures, they are taken so that they are in a 2:3 ratio. This means that the long side is 1.5 times longer than the short side. The images that you receive when you purchase digital files from me are in this native ratio. When you are printing in any combination of the 2:3 ratio, your image will print exactly as you see it on the screen. Common sizes at this ratio are 4x6, 8x12 and 16x24.

When you are printing, you are often given many more options that just the 2:3 ratio. If I believe that an image should be printed in a certain way, I will often give you this suggestion in addition to the native file on your USB. For example, this image would lend itself nicely to a square print.

Some images cannot be printed well at certain sizes. This image is beautiful at the native ratio of 2:3

However, if we print it as a 5x7", we get too close to the subject and the print won't look optimal.

If we print it at 8x10", we now lose some of the image and it is ruined.

So please take this into account when you are selecting images for your walls and when you are printing at the lab or online. This following image shows how much of the image will be seen at these common sizes.

Sydney Beach Maternity Photography

As a Sydney maternity photographer, I'm always asked where I think the best place is for our photoshoot. Without hesitation, I always say, the beach. Sydney has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world and I love taking advantage of this with maternity photography. Beach photography is my favourite for maternity and family photoshoots. There are so many wonderful beaches in Sydney, but I have been drawn to Coogee for some time now. I know its every nook and cranny by now. I was particularly excited for this session to try out my maternity dresses that I made for the shoot. As illustrated on my Facebook page, I've been in a creative bubble lately, making lots of maternity gowns and newborn props. Lincraft had a sale on material over the weekend, so I intend to make a couple of snug gowns, to show off the beautiful curves of the pregnant woman and the baby bump, and I've got some lace to try my hand at a robe.

This stunning maternity mumma-to-be was the perfect model for my new dresses, she couldn't look more beautiful and radiant. I hope you love these images as much as I do.

Beautiful curly newborn boy | Sydney newborn photographer

It was a warm summer day in Sydney as I drove to this newborn baby photography session by the beach. I first met his family a couple of years ago, in my home studio in Oatlands, in the western suburbs of Sydney. They were a small family of 3 and were just getting used to the newborn phase. I was curious to meet little Oliver, to see if he would look like his older brother, and in many ways he did. He was just delightful and I loved seeing his family grow and move to a beautiful beachside home to enjoy the sun. He slept so beautifully and stretched and moved and I moved him from pose to pose. We baby photographers have names for our poses, like nighty night, bum-up, and of course, the taco pose, named because we pretty much fold the baby in half! Big brother was great when we came to do the sibling shot. When we asked him to 'give the baby a kiss', we got a very cute open mouthed kiss! Hey, we're keeping it real! He happily slid in beside Dad and his brother, and without being asked, he pretended to sleep, just like Daddy and baby brother. I hope you love the images of sweet, little Oliver as much as I do.

What to wear for our family photoshoot

I think the number one question clients ask me is 'what should we wear'. The answer is very individual to the family, so I thought I would take you through my thought processes on how to select outfits and how to shop for the missing pieces. For Christmas, my mother in law asked for a wallet sized picture of her five grandsons. So my mission was to create some beautiful images of all of them, and individual ones, so that I could make up a small brag book for her handbag.

The first thing I wanted to think of was what will I be using the images for? Given it was a brag book, matching colours to decor wasn't going to be important. If you are doing your photoshoot so that you can put artwork on your wall, it's really important to ask yourself what type of images will suit the space. If your decor is loud and colourful, pastels won't be a good match. Neutral spaces are pretty safe, and most colours will be fine, but you might want to think about a splash of colour. You can also pay attention to the environment you want to shoot in. Personally, I adore beach photography, so I wanted to take the boys to the beach. I knew I would be shooting in the golden hour, and so the colours would be soft and light and airy. This formed the basis of my colour palette.

For boys, I love the gentleman look. I love linens, and button up shirts. I never recommend matching outfits, as they tend to look like 'uniforms'. You want to select pieces that compliment one another and are representative of each individual. I went through their wardrobes looking for pieces to match my vision. I also asked my sister in law to bring around what she had for her little one. We laid them all out on the dining table and discussed what we liked about all the pieces. We took photos, so we would know what we had and what we needed and we did a little inventory for each boy. I will attach a couple of pictures. They are just iPhone shots, but it will give you an idea of what we were aiming for.

Sometimes, I will create colour boards, mood boards or pinterest boards for clients, particularly for extended family sessions. For this shoot, I had the following vision for the colours:

We then went off to the shops to find the missing pieces. We were heading to H&M as they have beautiful pieces that are very affordable. (I am not sponsored by them!) Luckily, we found everything we wanted in a relatively short period of time. We took over the shop, laying out all of the clothes beside each other, working out what we thought would work together. Some were obvious and we kept, others were obvious and we put them back, and a few we couldn't decide on, so we decided to buy extra pieces and return any we didn't want.

We ended up with this clothes rack, ready for our photoshoot.

One last word of warning, as we were about to head out, I realised that I would be shooting at the little one's dinner time - fail! So I fed him some weetbix to fill his belly before we went out. Never have a hungry child at a photoshoot.

When we arrived at Coogee beach, heads turned. These handsome, well dressed men looked so beautiful and were a stark contrast to the sun-drenched beach goers at the end of their Sydney day out at the beach! The following images are some of my favourites from the shoot, and I think you can see how my vision of "linens, button-up shirts, gentlemen and soft, light and airy" came to fruition. I hope this can help you when you are considering what to wear for your family photoshoot.

Precious Little Sitter

Though I love newborn photography, with their tiny features and sweet curly bodies, equally, I love the baby stage where they are sitting up but they aren't on the move quite yet. At this age, they are so genuine. They can give you the serious, "what are you doing look", quickly followed by the gorgeous giggly laugh. Even the "get me outta here Mum" cries are so cute and beautiful at this age. It doesn't last long before they are on the move and toddling off to explore the world. When this sweet girl arrived, her Mum told me she was getting tired and was due for a nap. I was sure we would have to postpone. We didn't. We just moved quickly and got so many beautiful shots of her before she went home for a nap. I love how she goes from serious to laughing within a few frames. She is such a gorgeous babe with a head full of hair!

If you would like to book a little sitter session for your baby, you can find the information you need HERE

Beach maternity shoot | Sydney maternity photographer

How beautiful is this Mamma? I think everyone knows this now, my favourite location for maternity and family shoots is the beach. There are so many beautiful beaches in Sydney to choose from, from Balmoral to Coogee and lots in between. There's something about the beauty of the beach that compliments the beauty of the Mum to be. Or maybe it's the other way around? Either way, I just love beach maternity sessions and when you see these images, you'll see why.

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…

How to hang a picture without requiring a wall stud | Sydney family photographer

I've had a few clients ask me about how I hang my acrylic images. I thought I would put together a quick video to show how I hang acrylics using a fantastic new product, that doesn't require you to find a wall stud. I hope you enjoy!

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 :)