My eldest turned 4 last week. FOUR! One fantastic thing about turning four is that she's now interested in having me taking her photo after years of running in the opposite direction. Most of my clients comment that I must have TONS of beautiful shots of my own children but alas, they've never really cooperated with me until now.

So for her fourth birthday, Rilka decided it would be OK if we did a little mini shoot using my medium format film camera. I've been shooting lots of film lately for my own personal work and I absolutely love the anticipation of packaging up my rolls of film, sending them in the post and waiting for the email from my lab to say my scans are ready to download, it's like Christmas morning every time! And I adore the look of film, the tones and contrast, the care taken with each shot (appeals to the perfectionist in me :) really gives you a look that's unattainable with digital.

These images are so precious to me, they document my little toddler now grown into a gorgeous little girl.
(for the photographers out there, shot on a Contax 645, 80mm lens at f2 using Fuji Pro 400H and Kodak Portra 800)

We are looking for newborn models (under 2 weeks old) for our Melbourne workshop this month on Saturday the 16th in St Kilda. If you or someone you know has just had a bub, now is your chance to have professional images taken for free! Newborn models receive complimentary prints of all images captured on the day. For more info, please contact us.

I'm having a little re-vamp in the studio at the moment, and gorgeous Harley was first to test out the new ottoman, I love how tiny he looks!

Don't these girls have the most gorgeous names? And they were so good to me today, with the first image taken within minutes of their arrival at the studio.

I headed down to Melbourne last weekend to teach a fantastic group of photographers the finer details of newborn photography, we hired a professional natural light studio and spent the day posing 4 beautiful little newborn models; Harley, Daniel, Milla and Vaida.

And I have good news for all those on the waiting list, I've released one final Brisbane workshop date for this year in November - get in quick, there's just one day available! Click the link at the top of the page to register.

Caleb was so intent on staying awake for his session, I could not believe as we finished our last shot for the morning, he fell into a deep slumber. I usually only do the pose below with very, very sleepy babies (ie not very often at all) we decided we had nothing to loose with waking Caleb so we went ahead and shot this adorable capture. *please don't try this one at home, baby isn't balancing here, it's actually a composite of two images merged in PhotoShop*

I was thrilled to see this family again, I photographed sister Jasmine just 2 years ago as a newborn and I'm pleased to report she's now a beautiful (and very cooperative!) toddler and very attentive big sister.

We live in a digital age, and with that, comes thousands upon thousands of happy family snaps buried within your computer's hard drive, some of which may never to see the light of day. Stop to imagine for a second how you would feel if your computer suddenly bit the dust and you lost all your images.... Well, it happened to me.

Around 2 years ago, I thought I was being smart by storing all our family photos and videos on an external hard drive. I knew I had to store them in a second location but I put it off over and over again because I didn't have the time, and naively believed something so catastrophic would never happen to me.

Then I dropped my hard drive. While it was turned on.

Cue, major freak out. It happened over Christmas and the only thing I could do was take the drive to the recovery experts and hope for the best. 3 weeks passed and I was beside myself with worry. THANKFULLY the clever people at the IT centre were able to recover everything, for a price of $1500. $1500 I was happy to pay, an expensive lesson which could have ended in tears.

Now my images are stored not only on my computer's hard drive, but on 2 separate backup drives and I make sure my monthly favourites are printed and stored in a slip-in album. Also, at the beginning of each year, I sit down at my computer and collate my favourite 100 images from the previous year. It's time consuming and a daunting task but I revel in going through all the snapshots I've taken and re-live each moment with a smile on my face. I then send them off to be printed and bound into beautiful 9x9 inch linen albums with slip covers, blind embossing, yummy linen cover colours and marbled end papers.

These are heirlooms that will be passed down through our family's generations, I can't help but smile when I think of what a precious gift I'm giving my children. Don't put off backing up your files, I can't stress this enough. And print your favourites! After all, who is going to enjoy those images if they're lost within the depths of your computer's hard drive?

Luca was all of 3 days new when he dropped in to help me with a mentor session this morning. His mum and dad are so lucky to have captured this precious time, I kinda wish these images were mine to put on the wall!

With a little help from Daddy's pinky finger :)
More from this sweet pea's session this afternoon...

We're having a baby boom here at the moment in Brisbane, I'm booked solid! This morning was Reve's turn in front of the camera.... and his big brother Finn - how gorgeous are they?

I'm looking for a bub under 2 weeks of age to model for me in a special project I'm working on. The session will be on Tuesday 9th August, so if you have just had a new baby or you're due any moment and would like a free newborn session and complimentary prints, please contact me :)