Orchard Blossoms ~ Bunbury Family Photographer

This spring I’ve been waiting patiently for the stars to align and give me a day when the sun shone over the blossoming orchards. We don’t get a very big window of time when they are in full bloom here, so I wasted no time getting my girls photo ready and getting out there for some gorgeous memories when the opportunity finally presented itself. I’m so in love with the images we created, what a beautiful backdrop for my beautiful children (not that I’m biased at all ;-)). Here’s a little snapshot for you all.

I’f you’re reading this post in spring time and you’d love us to capture some gorgeous memories of your own children in the blossoms, just get in touch!

Jo x

Mother's Day Portraits ~ Bunbury CentrePoint

Last weekend we set up two mini Pop Up studios at Bunbury Centre Point to capture some gorgeous memories for local families in time for Mother's Day this weekend. We had over 150 families come to visit us and we were so pleased to see people had come all the way from Manjimup and from all over the southwest. It was fantastic to see lots of familiar faces and to see so many mums getting in with their kids for a photo too!

The kids enjoyed making cards at our craft stations, and as we were set up to print on the day we loved being able to see mums face as she looked at beautiful the print she got to take home. 

Thank you so much to everyone who came along, and thank you to CentrePoint for putting on such a great free event for the local community. 

If you came along to the event and you'd like an even bigger print or canvas of your gorgeous photo just get in touch - we offer high quality in-house printing at our Bunbury studio so we'd be happy to help you get your precious memories up on your walls to be enjoyed for years to come. 

We also have a special Mother's Day promotion on offer for our portrait gift cards this week, so if you missed out on your portrait last weekend or even if you did come but we left you wanting more, you can buy a gift card for a family portrait session and get bonus value - the perfect gift for Mum this Mother's Day. Check out the details and order yours online here:

https://www.thephotographyboutique.com.au/mothers-day

Fun in a Wildflower Meadow

As a photographer it's always interesting travelling to different places. The light behaves so differently from one place to another and of course the scenery changes too. Out on a portrait session at Folly Farm in the UK we came across this lovely wildflower meadow, and even though it was the middle of the day the rainy skies made for some gorgeous memories x

Business Branding Portrait - Nick's Lifestyle Coaching

It's a lesser known fact that while we are not full tilt during wedding season we also offer Business Branding Portraits to help businesses of all types put their best selves out there into the world. 

Marketing experts these days tell you that to be successful in business you need to make a personal connection with your potential clients, and in today's age of social media with people scrolling through literally tonnes of information a day, it's hard to stand out. 

Yes, millions of images exist online so you can pay a small fee for stock photography to fill your website and social media profiles with. But do generic images of things that relate to your business really help you stand out? Or would you be better off putting a little time and effort into creating your own library of images so that people who connect with your brand actually see you and your business?

Or perhaps you can just get by taking your own photos? Maybe you can, but it's worth remembering that your photos represent your business, and low quality imagery will communicate the same about your business. 

If you're not sure if representing your brand visually in the best way possible is so important, just check out this article, it sums it up pretty well:

https://www.mannixmarketing.com/blog/5-reasons-every-business-needs-professional-photos/

Last week we had the pleasure of getting to know Nick who is interested in becoming a Lifestyle Coach. An ex-body builder he leads a healthy lifestyle inspired by positive thinking and a love of the outdoors, and his dream is to follow his passion and help others do the same. After a planning session together to storyboard ideas and visualise what he wanted his future brand to look like, we went out and captured a library of images for him to use when he starts up to really show people what he and his business are all about and build trust in his brand right from the word go.

Every time we create a branding portrait we capture a range of images that can be used across different platforms and are versatile in the ways they can be displayed - from website banners to profile pictures, abstract ideas and traditional print media layouts there are so many ways we need to visually communicate these days, so we make sure our clients have the ability to easily do that. 

We can plan sessions in many different ways...business portraits are not reserved just for big business with big budgets, we can create great looking images anywhere. 

Here are just a few of the images we captured for Nick's own personal stock library...with this gallery of images at his fingertips we just know he'll be a Lifestyle Coach that motivates us all to get out and get healthy!

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If you'd like us to create a better image of your brand simply get in touch to find out how!

E mail us at studio@thephotographyboutique.com.au or call us on 08 9791 4226 and we will be in touch.

~

Apples are not Apples... Why You Should be Asking your Photographer for more than just Digital Files

So we're living in a digital age and our cameras capture digital images that we can print time and time again. With just a few clicks we can send our digital images across the interweb and create all kinds of cool things - huge canvas wall pieces, photobooks, wallet prints for grandma, the sky's the limit - and that rocks!

But as professional photographers we struggle with handing over digital files to our clients, and here's why...

We invest a lot of time and money into colour managing our work, buying professional equipment and educating ourselves so that we can be sure that the final products we create look exactly the same as the images we see and edit on our screens. You might think that's a given, but in reality it's not. We use specialist equipment to regularly calibrate our computer screens to make sure they display colour and brightness correctly, we invest in top spec professional photographic printers and set up specific profiles for them on our computers so that they work together perfectly, and we even adjust our settings depending on the paper we print each image on. 

When you order prints and products from local retailers or online, it is not often that they will have a professional photographic workflow, and so the results will often leave you disappointed. 

We decided to try a little experiment and see just how much difference there would be printing the same image at several different places. We printed this image from one of our recent newborn sessions on our colour-managed printer here at the studio, and then also sent it out to 4 local photo print retailers. We knew there was going to be a difference but when we got the prints back even we were shocked at just how different they were! 

This example shows you a completely unedited photo that we took of two of the prints - one printed by us and the other at one of the local retailers (and just in case you're wondering the other retail prints looked pretty much the same as this example).

When you invest time and money into having your special memories captured by a professional photographer and then only take away the digital files to print yourself, you're leaving the final result completely to chance and will often be disappointed in the prints you get back - you only have to look at this example to see it.

That's why we are passionate about printing all our images for our clients and why we invest so much in colour management to ensure our prints always look exactly as we expect them to. We simply want you to have the most beautiful possible memories to keep forever, and we don't want all the hard work we've put in to creating that for you to be wasted on a inferior quality print x

Noah, Meg, Kate & the folks! ~ Bunbury Family Portrait Photography

We know that lots of people like to hide inside during winter and wait for warmer weather, but the southwest really does offer up some gorgeous winter light on a nice day, and if you're brave enough you'll be rewarded with some beautiful family portraits! 

It took us a little while to finally get out with Darren, Danielle and their three gorgeous kids. Between sports, camps, FIFO rosters, moving home and a new business it was tough to find a day that everyone could be there, but we persevered and eventually Lisa and the family spent a chilly but lovely winter's evening creating some special family memories together, which was well worth the effort!  

A few weeks later they now have some amazing aluminium wall art proudly hanging at home, to be enjoyed for a lifetime - just as it should be! 

~

Stop making excuses for not booking that family portrait you've been wanting to do for years. How many of your children's years have you missed because you keep putting it off? Make the time to make the memories - we promise it will be worth it in the end!

Click the link below to check out our family portraits and get in touch to book the perfect session for your family:

http://www.thephotographyboutique.com.au/kids

Silver at the AIPP National Photography Awards!

Following this year's success at the WA State AIPP Professional Photography Awards (check out the details in my blog post about it HERE), I somehow managed to find the time to enter some images into into the national awards, which were judged in Melbourne last weekend. 

I'm very happy to say that I came away with silver awards for these two images that I hold very close to my heart. It's lovely to be among such esteemed company as the very best photographers Australia has to offer and achieve awards at this level. 

Thanks to my gorgeous clients who allow me to get a real insight into who they are so that I can create special images like these.

Jo x

~

If you're interested in photography check out some of the mindblowing work featured at this year's awards here: 

http://www.aippappa.com/appa-2016/2016-aipp-appa-category-winners

And if you're really keen you can even watch the judging here:

http://www.aippappa.com/appa-2016/2016-livestream

Enjoy x

The Hart Family ~ Bunbury Lifestyle Newborn Portrait

We just love capturing the first days of a newborn baby in their own home with their family around them. Lifestyle sessions are a great choice for families who want to capture relaxed, natural moments of family life, and for newborn sessions they are especially great when there are other young children involved, because little ones tend to be more comfortable in their own environment and not overwhelmed or over excited like they can be with a visit to the studio. 

When Tam called us to book a family session to celebrate their gorgeous new addition to the family, the plan was for a studio shoot because they are living in a rental and so they didn't want a shoot that featured their "home", but after having a chat we decided that a lifestyle session would work best for them and give them the type of images that they really wanted... we would just make sure that we focused on them and their home styling, rather than the house they were all in ;-) 

She warned me that her two year old daughter Grace might not be very cooperative and it's true she was a little shy when I first arrived at their home, but a quick game of hide and seek and some bonding over Nemo soon changed that and Grace couldn't have been a more perfect model for the morning.

Being an "outsider" noticing all the little details that you live with every day, us photographers sometimes find little gems that you might not think of too, so being in your home can enable us to capture more personal images with meaning, like capturing little Eve with the toy cat that her sister Grace gave her as a birth gift - the cat is the same size as her now but it won't take long before she's running around the house with it making it look ever smaller as she grows <3

Such a lovely family who gave me the privilege of sharing in this special time with them, this one has to be up there with my favourite shoots of the year so far :-)

Jo x

If you're expecting a baby and you'd like to chat to us about how you can perfectly capture their arrival, just check out our maternity and newborn portrait page HERE and get in touch!

http://www.thephotographyboutique.com.au/baby

WA Family Photographer of the Year Finalist!

Last month I entered the WA AIPP Professional Photography Awards for the first time ever, at the behest of a good friend. I have always been a proud member of the AIPP (Australian Institute of Professional Photography), because in an industry that doesn't require a licence to practice, I believe it's important to be part of a professional body like this that holds its members accountable and gives consumers the confidence in booking a photographer who they know will be experienced, technically excellent and professional in their business practices as long as they book a pro who is AIPP accredited (to find out more about what it means to be an AIPP Accredited Photographer click here: http://aipp.com.au/about/what-is-an-accredited-professional-photographer).

So the annual AIPP Awards are in essence the pinnacle of Australian Professional Photography. Every year photographers enter images for judging by their peers, creating a great space to develop and grow as creatives. I had never entered before because the awards require a lot of time, which with a busy studio to run and two under 5's in my house is not something I have going spare. But this year I decided to get involved, and I entered the Family Category.

Let me tell you it was such a great experience and I'm so glad I took part. I travelled up to Perth to watch the judging (which is open to the public so if you are interested in photography I would highly recommend going and seeing the hugely inspiring work being created by photographers in this state) and I am very happy to say that I was awarded three Silver Awards and was a Finalist (which puts me in the top three!) for WA Family Photographer of the Year!

You can check out all the winners and their amazing work here:

http://stateawards.aipp.com.au/WA/2016-WA-awards

I'm feeling very inspired after seeing such talented work, and I look forward to thinking outside the box to create some more unique and inspiring work myself in the year to come.

Here are my Award Winning Images for 2016 with the story of each one, which all have a special place in my heart so I'm very glad to see them do well. 

If you'd like to feature in your own award winning image, book your portrait with us and let's see what we can create together. Just give us a call on 08 9791 4226 or e mail studio@thephotographyboutique.com.au to book your session now!

Jo x

About this image: This image features the gorgeous Carli and Shae, who's wedding we photographed last year. When they came to meet with me about their Big Day they asked if we could forego the engagement session we usually include in our wedding pakcages, and do an underwater trash the dress shoot instead, as they have lived their whole lives in and on the water and it would have special meaning for them. So we planned and prepared and I spent an afternoon in scuba gear (with my lovely assistant Bianca) at the end of Busselton jetty and this is what we got, which I was super happy with. Evidently lots of other people liked it too as it went viral and was published around the world! I'm absolutely stoked my fellow professionals also recognise it as an award winning image, and I hope it will be the start of a new journey to always challenge myself and be up for doing something different!

About this image: This has to have been one of my very favourite shoots of all time. All those who know me know I'm a crazy dog lady, and Jasper and Gallifrey are just the most fantastic dogs! We had lots of fun in the studio creating some amazing art, and this shot was actually an out take that I just fell in love with. I mean who ever gets a photo of one dog poking her tongue out at another? ;-)

About this image: Recently a client and friend called and asked if I could take some family photos for them. Her father-in-law was not well and they were expecting Ray to only have a few months left with them. So I fit them in to a busy day of shooting and took lots of photos with the family all together. As I was leaving I noticed how many photos of his family he had in his home, so I asked him to sit in his chair amongst his loved ones and captured this shot. I'm so proud that this has achieved a Silver Award at the State Professional Photography Awards. This Award is to honour Ray who sadly passed away just a week after the shoot, and I'm very happy to have been able to capture these memories for his family before it was too late.

Harriet's First Birthday

A little while ago the very gorgeous Harriet turned one, and even at her young age she's already been through more than most.

Last year my very good friend Rachel and I both found out we were pregnant and due to have our babies just a week apart. We were looking forward to being belly buddies when at 25 weeks things changed for Rachel and she was rushed up to Perth where she gave birth to her new baby girl. I can't even image how scary it must have been for her and her family, but Harriet was born safely much to the relief of everyone. Being born so early things were a little complicated, and Rachel and Harriet spent the remainder of the year living up at King Edwards hospital while hubby Ben took leave from work to look after their two older children. 

It's been so inspiring to watch them just get on with everything with a smile on their faces, still enjoying life and everything it has brought to them. Thankfully Harriet has done amazingly well in her first year, and she is a beautiful happy little girl. When she turned one recently we celebrated with a Confetti party for her, and then we had a little fun in the studio to commemorate the occasion. 

Check out the super special doll Harriet's holding in some of her photos - it's a preemie baby handmade to be exactly the same size and weight as she was when she was born!

Congratulations on turning ONE baby girl. Here's to many more super fun birthdays, you're a lucky girl to be born into such a loving family and they are blessed to have you :-)

~

If your kids are celebrating a special milestone or you just want to capture them as they are now, check out our Milestone Mini Sessions!