Baby Olivia

Behind every photo session there is a love story of one kind or another. Each one different. At the heart of each story that brings a couple, or a family,  or a mother & her child to a photo session, there is someone who loves someone more than anything else in the world. I’ve learned that having pictures taken with the ones we love can give us more than just the photographs themselves. The session itself is a chance to celebrate who you love & what you love about life together right now. That is what I want to give people with their photo sessions. A page of their own unfolding story.  A record of what is beautiful & real to them at this point in time. A chance to stop & see what it is you really have in the people you love.

Phil & Vanessa welcomed us into their home to take some pictures of them & their baby girl Olivia. We never know where each session will end up. My priority when photographing a baby is that the baby feeds and sleeps when he or she needs to and the photo session revolves around the baby.  Olivia was awake for parts of the session, drinking a bottle for parts, sleeping on her daddy’s shoulder for parts…… and I photographed all of it because I know how precious the memory of their little sleeping face on your shoulder becomes when they no longer fit into your arms.

This is the first session where I have stayed on location long enough to see the moon rise. I am a natural light photographer, so once the sun has gone down, I pack away the camera. But for some reason not this time. We stayed on the beach & even though I had lost my light, I kept my camera out. The water was warm. The sky was turning pink. I think it was the beauty keeping us all there. What we didn’t know as the moon was about to rise, was that it happened to be the night the earth was closest to the moon this year. None of us knew it was the night of the super moon until we all saw it on the news when we got home, which explained why it was so mesmerising. Across the water the moon was rising above a castle-like building in the distance and as we watched, Vanessa told me that building was where her & Phil got married. There was a stream of light across the water from the place they were married to where they were standing with their baby girl.