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

Christian and Janika's Portrait Session ~ Bunbury Family Photographer

We always love our visits from this mini pair - they’re just so gorgeous!

And mum really outdid herself with styling their outfits - perfection.

We’re looking forward to the next update already :)

Juniper's Family Portrait ~ Bunbury Newborn Photographer

We still remember the light sabre battle we staged outside Abbey Beach Resort a few years ago as requested by Bethany and Ricky on their wedding day. It certainly was a unique day, so of course there was no surprise that mum had a few little ideas up her sleeve when they came in to show off their new baby with us. We just love seeing our past bride and grooms again and helping the mark the next chapter in their lives together. What a beautiful collection of prints and wall art these guys now have to treasure!

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

Family Fun ~ Bunbury Family Photographer

Cameron bought a gift card for his lovely wife for Christmas last year, they make great presents ;) 

Sonia gave us a call and we booked in a day to capture some beautiful, natural family memories for them. It was such a joy to be able to photograph this family all together just enjoying each other's company and a tickle or two! Little Ben and Sienna were the best of mates which of course made it all the more special!

How much have your kids grown since the last time you took the time to get some great portraits of them?

If it's been a while we can help! We love capturing natural, fun family portraits that tell your story. Check our our family portraits for more details:

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

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

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.

Eve's 18 months!

Today my beautiful baby girl is 18 months old! Eve is such a beautiful, vibrant, cheeky little trouble maker. It's amazing how opposite she and her big sister are, but we wouldn't have it any other way! 

To mark the occasion we spent a quick 20 minutes in the studio capturing the girls as they are, one loving life in a tutu and twirling like a princess, and one trying to eat a bubble stick.

(I don't know if other photographers get this but I find my own kids by far the most challenging to photograph ;-))

Love you to the moon and back my beautiful girls xxx

Jo

P.S. If you're a mum and you want some forever memories of your gorgeous children, check out our Simply Studio Sessions: 

http://www.thephotographyboutique.com.au/simply-studio-portraits

Shoot For Your Dad 2014! ~ 6th September 2014

With Father's Day just around the corner it's time for our annual Shoot for your Dad mini sessions!

We all know that even though he acts tough dad treasures his family more than anything, so what better gift to give him for Father's Day than beautiful images of the people he loves the most.

Book in your mini session for the 6th of September,  for your chance to create the perfect Father's Day gift for Dad. Bring yourself, the kids, pets, or the whole family to join in the fun!

The 15 minute mini sessions are $25 each, donated to Bowel Cancer Australia.

Have fun at the fabulous Melville Park Farm in Brunswick on Sunday 6th September (10am-4pm)...

Special Portrait Products are available for purchase from your session

To book your spot simply call us on 08 9791 4226 or e mail us at studio@clareday.com.au

We'll let you know what to do next!

Some of our families from 2013 sessions.....

Terms and Conditions.....

• Appointments are necessary due to limited times.
• Copyright belongs to Clare Day Photographic Design. Images are covered by Copyright Law and may not be copied, duplicated or scanned in any way.
• Automatic consent is given to Clare Day Photographic Design to use any image taken for this event for future promotions, advertising, and display in print, on the web, on our Blog and Facebook Page.
• Session Fee includes SESSION ONLY and does not include any prints, files or products.
• Online Galleries will be available on Monday 8th September for viewing purposes.
• Products, Prints or High Res files may be ordered by contacting the studio after the event.
• Large groups are difficult to accommodate in our Studio, so we strongly suggest any groups larger than 6 should be On Location.
• Sessions can be for Family groups, Individuals, Maternity, Pets, Kids, Grandparents....anyone at all! Newborns are welcome, but will be as a part of a family group, not individuals.

Why do we do this every year?

Clare's father-in-law, David Silvestro, was diagnosed with bowel cancer at the beginning of 2010. Sadly he lost his battle in mid April 2011. We miss him dreadfully and it makes us value our own dad's and families even more.

Because of this, we have chosen to hold a yearly fundraising event, a family portrait day in honor of Clare's father-in-law to coincide with Father’s Day and at the same time raise money for a VERY worthwhile cause.

PROUDLY SUPPORTING BOWEL CANCER AUSTRALIA,

Our aims are to raise money for Bowel Cancer Australia, as well as to increase the awareness of bowel cancer.

Bowel cancer claims close to 80 lives every week. It is the 2nd biggest cancer killer in Australia, but probably the least well known. The worse thing is, It can be treated successfully in 90 per cent of cases if caught in time, however, by the time you show symptoms it may be too late.

The National Bowel Cancer Screening Program has been put in place in an attempt to help reduce deaths by finding the disease before its too late. The program has saved more than 11,000 lives since bowel cancer screening was introduced in 2006, including my mother-in-law. But the problem is…not many people know about it.

Win a Maternity Portrait Package valued at $350!

The studio has taken on a very clucky air just recently with the news that Jo is PREGNANT!

Thanks to this awesome news we are getting all excited about bumps and babies, and to celebrate this very special time we are giving away THREE studio maternity portrait packages valued at $350!!!!!

The Prize includes a tailored studio portrait session here at Clare Day Photographic Design, professional hair and makeup for your shoot, and a gorgeous 8x10" print of your favourite image (or $100 credit to spend on anything you want!)For your chance to WIN simply tell us what you are most excited or nervous about with your pregnancy, leave us your contact details (phone number or e mail is fine), and we will be in touch!

Entries close at 5pm on Wednesday 25th June and the winners will be announced on our Facebook page at 12pm on Thursday 26th June. 

All winning sessions must take place by 30th September. The lucky winners should be between 30-35 weeks pregnant at the time of their session.

Entries can be accepted via Facebook (comment on our competition post or PM us), e mail to studio@clareday.com.au or call us on 08 9791 4226!

Good Luck!!!

Love Ya Mum this Mother's Day

 It's almost that time of year when we all spend a day thanking our very deserving mums for just being them. Nobody in the world does a more important job than mum, and to thank her for all her hard work we are offering a very special gift.Simply book one of our Portrait Packages  before Mother's Day** (that's Sunday 11th May 2014 for those of you who don't know - put it in your diary now!) and receive a gift print enlargement (of an image of your choice) up to the value of $200. The perfect Mother's Day Gift!

Just get in touch with us at the studio to find out more and book your session today!

For your chance to WIN a Clare Day Portrait Package tune in to RadioWest over the next few weeks too. We're sponsoring their awesome Love Ya Mum campaign, and three lucky people will WIN a gift voucher from us valued at $200! Tune in to Love Ya Mum and enter the Radiowest competition for your chance to win!

**Bookings must be made by Sunday 11th May and are subject to availability. Bookings are valid for maternity, newborn, kids, family portraits or mums pamper packages at your choice of studio, outdoors or at home. Bookings are valid for portrait sessions up to 31st August 2014.

If you would like to receive future special offers like this from us sign up to our monthly newsletter now!

February at the Studio

We don’t think there is such a thing as a quiet month in the world of CDPD. We get asked “So are you busy?’ OH MY GOD ARE WE BUSY!!  (which is great because we LOVE what we do J)Here’s a little look at what we got up to in February at the studio…

February Weddings

We had the privilege of photographing two fabulous weddings this month. A little quieter than past Februarys, but we are grateful for that as March is going to be a dooooooooozy.

Our first was the stunning wedding of Tabitha and Lance down in Pemberton on the 2nd of February. We love Pemberton and Clare would move there in a heartbeat if she was a closet millionaire and didn’t need to be in Margaret River or Busselton every weekend. The green lushness of the forests just makes her heart sing, as they did Tabitha and Lance and their wedding guests. Lance had great fun driving his antique red truck as the wedding car, and it made for pretty awesome wedding photos with the background of trees and ancient train tracks.

On the 8th of February we joined Laura and David at the fabulous Watershed Winery in Margaret River. It was a heartfelt late afternoon ceremony followed by a fun and joyful reception with family and friends in the restaurant. The surrounds of the winery are just beautiful and made the perfect backdrop for the bridal party images.

February Portraits

This month we celebrated three engagements with our fabulous E-Sessions.

Diona and Ryan started a VERY windy session with Clare and Jo at Back Beach before finishing up finding shelter at Maidens Reserve (it’s always great to have a backup plan!) Clare took Sophie and Jesse, along with their adorable puppies, to a special loved up Valentines session on the Australind Foreshore, and Josh and Sarah got up nice and early to hang out in Dalyellup with Clare one Saturday morning!

It’s fabulous to get to know our clients so well leading up to their wedding days, it makes The Big Event even more exciting and enjoyable, our couples (especially the boys) get to find out it’s not as scary as it seems – and we get to make awesome things like Guest Books and Save the Dates!! We created amazing Save the Date cards for Larissa and Byron this month for their wedding in Tassie. Fully custom designed, printed on gorgeous textured art paper. We are currently designing some for Sophie and Jesse too!

But it’s not all just about our couples, we love hanging out with families here at the studio too. We got to hang out with two extended families this month, the Godsell’s and the Bonser families. That special occasion is the perfect reason to drag all those family members back home for a weekend and get all the kids together - all the cousins get to say HI, and Mum finally achieves that special family portrait she has been wanting for years.

Good planning is essential with larger groups, enabling excellent colour combinations and the perfect location to complement nicely. We always have planning sessions without portrait clients and with larger groups it’s even more essential so that everyone co-ordinates nicely to achieve that perfectly designed portrait image.

We also got to spend time with baby Annie and her family for a studio session to complete a set of wall art that mum and dad wanted to create for each of their kids.

 BIG EVENTS!

While Clare was out frolicking at Tabitha and Lance’s wedding Jo stayed closer to home to show face at the annual Lord Forrest Wedding Expo. It was a super busy day that was put together well by the team at the Lord Forrest, and Jo had lots of fun chatting to different people, from couples who had their Big Day all planned out to those just starting out and even some ladies who were so super organized their other halves hadn’t even popped the question yet – they just wanted to be prepared for when the special day came!!!

February Behind the Scenes

Behind the scenes we've been BUSY BUSY BUSY!! After our favourite camera and lens combo went swimming last month, it visited the Canon hospital for a few weeks and is now back in rotation along with our fabulous new equipment, two new cameras, four new lenses, a snazzy new tripod with video head, and various other bits and bobs.

We have met with many new wedding clients and have booked lots of new weddings for the coming year, and met with many of our up and coming wedding couples to plan their Big Day.

We have also been busy bees researching new products and are gearing up to launch some very exciting new wedding albums very soon. Our GORGEOUS new line of albums by New Zealand company Queensberry are benchmark AWESOME in the world of Wedding Albums, and we are looking forward to receiving our first sample album in the coming weeks.

We are introducing a new service this month too…Fusion Wedding Videos!! Our first ones will be shot in March and we are super excited to create some fabulous moving art for our very lucky clients.

Both Clare and Jo celebrated their BIRTHDAYS this month - Jo’s on the 17th and Clare’s on the 18th! More proof that we are really carbon copies of each other (although Clare is actually about 20 years older than Jo... well maybe only 5). We celebrated with a few glasses of bubbles at the Bull and Bush Tavern with our families and friends.

In our own families…. Clare’s hubby John has started his Dip Ed in Maths and Media Education up in Perth, so travels up and back every week to go to ECU in Joondalup, leaving Clare and Sam to be awesome at home. This will be one very busy and full on year for him and Clare, but will mean excellent future prospects for everyone. Sam the Man is 16 months old (OMG), running everywhere, full of beans and a total joy. His current favorite word is MUM (YAY!!!!)

True to form Jo took advantage of her birthday and stretched out celebrations for most of the month, so she’s looking pretty tired but she had a great time and still has a permanent smile on her face J

March is already shaping up to be the busiest one ever, so we look forward to sharing the joy with you all and we’ll let you know what we got up to when it’s all over!

Townsend Family Portrait

One lovely weekend I trundled up to Sunny Perth and met up with the family of a past Bride and Groom!! Elizabeth and Steven, along with Lizzie's family AND new baby Xavier! YAY!! And all in my old stomping ground of Palmyra. I hadn't been to this particular park since I was at High School, so it was a lovely trip down memory lane.

Happy New Year!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed spending time with your loved ones :-)The studio has now reopened after a well earned two week Christmas break, and we are hard at work catching up with all our enquiries and gearing up for a very busy upcoming wedding season.

Thank you so much to everyone who came to see us at Bunbury Centrepoint in December to have their photo taken with Santa. You all helped make it a truly enjoyable venture and we hope you enjoyed the experience as much as we did!

We hope to see you there again next year and we will be sending out a quick feedback survey very soon, so join our mailing list for your chance to have your say and make sure that next year's Santa Photo experience is even bigger and better than ever!

Here at the studio we have made some important New Year resolutions, and top of our list is to dedicate ourselves to making Clare Day Photographic Design the very best it can be, spoiling our clients, and of course spending quality time with our own families.

The studio will now be closed on Mondays, and open for business 9-5 Tuesday to Friday each week. We are also available on weekends by appointment.

Whether you are getting married, celebrating a new milestone, or simply want to take time out to enjoy yourselves, get in touch. We can create some beautiful memories for you that you will treasure forever.

Here's to a fabulous 2014 - we look forward to sharing it with you!

Check out our new studio!

We realise things have been pretty quiet in blog town lately here at Clare Day but it's not because we haven't been hard at work. In fact it's because we have been soooo hard at work that we just haven't had time!

So many exciting things have been happening that it's hard to even know where to start. But let's try starting here......

INTRODUCING OUR FABULOUS NEW BUNBURY STUDIO!!!

Business is going so well and we love our clients so much that we decided you deserve a beautiful space to come and visit when you come to see us.

And we deserve it too ;-)

Our studio is a classy space full of beautiful smiling faces (on the walls and in the office!) where you can come to see our latest and greatest work, catch up with us, and make big beautiful plans to create amazing memories - from weddings and milestones to all the moments in between.

Of course with such a lovely space at our disposal we thought it would be a shameful waste if we didn't make the very most of it, so stay tuned for our next post...when we'll be introducing you to our awesomely talented new studio photographer Jo!

Our new studio is at 3 Zoe Street, Bunbury - next to Harley Davidson (brrrrmmmmmm.....)

We just love visitors so drop in and see us any time :-)