It’s no news that the past year has kept us a little ‘busy’.
If this is news to you, you can read about our year here.
Life, truly, has been a shit storm this year.
I can honestly say, we have never fought so hard for life, love and family like we did this year.
I had to step back from my work as a writer and a photographer.. and it broke me! I didn't know who I was when I wasn't writing or behind my camera.
Finally, my husband calls, “I’m packing some things to bring back to Sydney.. I think having your camera might help you.. and you can write about what’s going on..”
I gave him some lecture about having valuables in a hospital.. but maybe he was onto something.. so, the following day, I had my camera.
It sat in the bedside cupboard of my hospital room for a couple of weeks. I just couldn’t bring myself to document what we were dealing with. - Yes, that's correct. I had thousands of dollars worth of camera gear just chilling in an unlocked cupboard in my hospital room.. but I wasn't going anywhere.
And then our son was born.
I began documenting everything. I took photos of everything. I took photos of the beautiful moments and I took photos of the heartbreaking ones.
These moments wouldn't just change our lives, they'd change my career too.
Once life had finally settled down for us, and we finally had our boy home, John and I reassessed our lives and our choices.
We decided that things needed to change.. one of those things; our business.
We looked at it like a service.. because that’s what we offered; that's ALL we offered!
But I didn’t want that anymore
I didn't want to just 'take pictures of people'. I wanted to capture how people felt IN these moments.
I wanted to know our couples, and I wanted to feel like they'd known us for years!
I wanted them to feel completely relaxed because we’d gotten to know each other so well.. I wanted them to feel like they’d gained more than just a legacy album and some canvases.
Our favourite sessions have always been with friends. We enjoy each other's company and we laugh through the entire evening.. and theirs are the photos we love most, because they're genuinely happy!
They aren't rushing through their session because it's awkward and they don't know us. - We want genuine happiness for ALL OUR COUPLES! The shoots I come away from, and feel like 'I don't wanna do this anymore', they're the shoots where we have next to nothing in common with our couples. They're the sessions where I direct the bride-to-be to, "swoop your hair out of your face and give me a soft laugh as you look at his shoulder" and then tell the groom-to-be to "laugh at her laughing at nothing".. and everyone's mood is absolutely dry.
We want to know our couples and we want them to know us. We want them to be comfortable with us so that it shows through in their images!
We want our couples to know that these 'pictures', they're more than a pay check for us. It's being apart of someone's life. It's being chosen, out of all the photographers that they could have picked, to document a stage in their life that they won't experience again.
So, whilst we are currently not taking bookings, we are taking a really hard look at our business structure and what we can offer our couples in the new year to really push us back into the industry with a new take on life and the way we give to our clients.
And because I hate ending a blog post without a photo.. I love these images.. because they're of a couple of our closest friends, Rhiannon and Rhys, during one of our most favourite sessions!
..you’ll see them again in a couple of weeks 😉
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