Yup – a Valentines wedding….and a BIG weekend for j [studios]. Our first double header weekend (and another one due in April!). Yesterday celebrating with Anne & Dan, and today photographing the Australian Wedding of Cissy & Jared. They got married recently in Canada, but they had booked me to shoot their Australia ceremony for their family & friends here, held at Ballara Receptions. It was a beautiful day with them and their gorgeous daughter Sadie. It was truly an honour and a privileged to be their photographer (and Cissy has to be one of the most beautiful people I know – inside and out! Love a woman who laughs as freely as her). Enjoy your sneak peak guys.
j.
This wedding was absolutely phenomenal! I have been looking forward to this wedding since Anne & Dan first met with me last February. When I found out they actually booked me I did my (incredibly lame) happy dance around the house. I had no idea that over the course of a year Anne would end up becoming a good friend, and quite possibly one of my favourite people in the world. When she told me her dream was to make her own wedding dress I was even more excited. Getting emailed pictures of it progressing, helping find a celebrant (wasn’t Kristian awesome?) and make up artist (Annie is incredible) and hearing all the details and planning over the course of a year (and about a million emails) really did make me feel like a part of the big day. Watching the two of them get married made me so happy (yes I cried). Dan just beamed as she walked down the aisle.
Anyway I am slightly delirious from and amazing day, and have a valentines day wedding to shoot in just over 8 hours…so for now, the sneak peak (stay tuned for a slideshow and probably some more photos!).
Also wanted to send a huge shout out to the amazing florist (I mean check out those florals….how freaking amazing were they???) all done by the lovely Georgie Stanton Flowers and of course the dress was made by uber talented bride Anne (Sarah Vain & Tall - stay tuned for the website) and the fabulous shoes were custom made by Mallouk Shoes).
j.
When I found out Liana was coming back to Australia to teach her photo biz bootcamp, I knew I had to bug her to come back to Melbourne and hopefully teach and advance course. To my surprise she agreed! Even more exciting I got to co-host the bootcamps here in Melbourne with Mandy! When she invited me to attend as the first ever person to go through bootcamp twice I jumped at it. Why? Because the first time literally changed my life. Yes the business stuff was awesome and so helpful, but the way she helped me get my priorities in order was amazing. She gave me back to my family and my husband and for that I will be eternally grateful. Going through bootcamp the second time was less scary, but still hard work. I did alot of thinking, and tweaking and looking forward to starting Ganutlet (bootcamp part 2 tonight).
yesterday after wrapping up, we headed into the city where one of my amazing brides agreed to meet us so Liana could show us how she shoots her famous high fashion bridal shoots. Sarah looked amazing in her dress and the hair & make up styled by Megan Harrision was, as usual, perfection. Chelsea also tagged along (with 4 different outfits) so Liana could photograph her in the city afterwards (though most people hung around to photograph her too!) and was in her element as she got to be styled, posed and snapped by her very own group of paparazzi!
Big Thanks goes out to
Liana – for once again coming to Australia to teach
Sarah – for being one of the best clients a girl can have (and agreeing to be shot by 5 people)
Megan Harrison – for doing an amazing job on the hair and make up even though you were very very ill
Mandy for co-hosting bootcamp and organising all the awesome food
Hannah, Hayley & Rita - for attending bootcamp with us and sharing your stories
j.
Today was….tough. Today in our house, we had FIVE kids start school. Including my very last babies. I am sure it was only yesterday that they were born sending our lives into sheer chaos (newborn twins who never sleep and cry all day when you already have a 2yo & 3yo will do that) and here they were off to school. Even with an extra year of4yo kinder, I wasn’t ready for today. I didn’t want to let them go.
Last night I helped them get their things ready and pack their bag…everything in me just wanted to be able to slow down time somehow (or reverse it….I miss those cheeky babies and crazy toddlers). I tucked them into bed one last time and tried not to cry.
This morning however was sheer chaos…it turns out it takes me a full 10 minutes to braid each girls hair….times that by 4 and we have 40 full minutes of my doing hair, which means I was doing hair for a full 40 minutes….after waking up at 7am….and having to leave at 7:50!!!! Note to self….6am wake up might be better. But we made it and didn’t they all look freakin cute?
Of course after the girls headed off to school I still had one more kid to get ready and settled at a new school. Some of you may be aware my 16yo brother came to live with us just before Christmas. Life with a teenager has been….an adjustment (lets leave it at that shall we?). Today he started school. You know the one…the crap school…with the crap uniform…and the crap tie…and I can’t believe I have to wear crap black shoes. At least he was easy to wake up this morning (small mercies right?). Here is is in that crap uniform…looking decidedly unimpressed in the first photo and surprisingly upbeat in the second – TEENAGERS!
So after getting him settled at school had to race to the girls school to hopefully get to see the twinnies off to their classroom. Thankfully I made it. Another hard thing, is we made the decision to separate them this year. They have been apart for no longer than an hour or two their whole life. We know it is for the best as they are so reliant on each other. We got them super excited about going into their own classes and make their own friends (given that they have had to share everything from conception…even a placenta). Of course the reality hit them when we took Audrey into her class and she seemed excited, but when they realised it was time for Harriet to go next door they both got a funny look on their face (thats when I started to cry) and they gave each other the BIGGEST hug. Totally broke my heart and made me completely second guess separating them. I spent the next half an hour switching back and forth between the rooms. When I left Audrey to visit Harry, she was colouring in.
I wasn’t surprised to see Harry also colouring…they do love their art, I was however a little bit stunned to see she had picked the exact same colouring sheet….out of 20 or so different sorts. *sigh* my twinnies!
so ends my sad tale. Today my babies are no longer babies. They are big school girls! (though for now I am going to go watch them sleep for a bit and pretend they are still my baby girls).
j.
I am so incredibly blessed to have such amazing clients. Michelle, Judy & their beautiful daughter were one of those amazing clients. Made me feel totally welcome in their home and fussed over me – usually giving me alot of yummy food when I came to “visit” (aka – work). When they moved back to Sydney last year I was sad, but the perk of my job is I can go anywhere to do it. Well Miss Jessica just turned One so it was time to have some updated photos of her and her beautiful family.
Michelle & Judy, once again, thank you for inviting me into your home to spend time with your beautiful little girl. I had so much fun today and will miss you guys! Hopefully we can do it again not to far in the future.
j.
I have had the pleasure of photographing the lovely Nicole before but this shoot was different. Nicole was after a high fashion ad styled shoot. She found the most fabulous make up artist and styled the shoot herself. She left it to me to pick the location (and abandonded warehouse I had been dying to shoot in….and it really was only a little bit of break and enter) and we ended up with these.
note: this is way beyond what I normally do….but it was SO.MUCH.FUN!
j.
ps – wanted to give a huge shout out to the Uber talented Ali Hohn, without your paitence in teaching me to use OCF (off camera flash) I never would have been able to attempt this. You rock Ali (if any photographers want to learn OCF the easy and painless way….check out her ebook!)
While I am off galavanting in Sydney (aka – working) I have organised a few catch up sneak peeks to keep you entertained while I am away. One of these is the absolultely divine little Fletcher!
Fletcher is the little brother of Cooper (one of our very first j [studios] clients) and it already seems like chalk and cheese! Cooper fought for almost 3.5 hours for his photo shoot….refusing to sleep! Mr. Fletcher was already asleep when I got there and barely stirred the entire time! He was a delight to photograph and his shoot was done in record time. Thanks for having me back guys, glad to see how big Cooper has gotten and to meet Fletcher.
and look how big Cooper is now! And still as cheeky as our first session…I aws lucky to get this one!
j.
This afternoon I got to hang out with the fabulous Jo & Paul who run the Photo Store. Jo is a HUGE supporter of the ACOCP (one of the many reasons I her!) and I was so glad to finally get to photograph her.
Paul is a little bit in love with boats…in fact he is currently building his own (yes you read that right, I can barely raise a hammer, Paul is building a boat!) to sail around the world with his Jo. With that in mind I found this ridiculously cute little boat in Williamstown and then off to a familiar favourite abandoned house.
Great to catch up with you again – enjoy your sneak peek!
j.
ps – is it just me or is jo rocking a bit of a certain australian celebrity? Especially in images 5, 6 & 7….I will be curious to see if anyone else sees it. Ryan picked it straight away, but I don’t think Jo believes me!
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