Category Archives: Family Photography

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Kristen Cook – Family Photography in Melbourne

Back from Brisbane

Well, I’m back home now after my Brisbane holiday and feeling a little more human.

We left on Friday and Mia was surprisingly good on the plane! We left home at 6am, flight was at 8am and she only spent about 10 minutes of the whole flight crying, so that was great! She fell asleep in the bus transfer to the hotel (BLISS finally!) but it was POURING with rain when we arrived. Our hotel room wasn’t ready for another 3 hours after we arrived so we decided to walk around and have something to eat. We hired a pram, so when the rain stopped, we went to the Botanical Gardens (where I was hoping to practice shooting) and of course, got stuck in a massive downpour with no umbrella or undercover areas to hide under. Mia thought it was hilarious. We ended up all climbing on top of some play equipment and trying to stay dry that way while waiting out the rain!

Here are just some of the beautiful friends of mine I spent some time with over the weekend and was lucky enough to snap some photos of:

Then Monday hit… LOL. I wish I could have skipped it altogether!!

7:30am: Jetstar call to say our 10am flight has been cancelled and can we go at 6:45pm instead (umm… NO!) I said we were travelling with a baby and can’t wait that long without a hotel, pram etc. So they put us on a Qantas flight for 1pm, but that arrived at a different airport to where our car was. They kindly organised a bus for us from one airport to another to collect the car and drive home.

12noon: We get to Brissie airport to check in, but Qantas have no record of us (of course they don’t). We’re told to go to Jetstar to sort it out. Jetstar then tell us they had us on a flight that left at 11am (obviously not since we’re standing there…) but finally found another one that left at 2pm. This one again arrived at another airport so we would have to catch a transfer bus they organised for us when we arrived. We were sent off to gate 36 to wait for the 2pm flight.

1:30pm: We’re sitting in an empty gate lounge. There’s no one around. I decide to check the screen above the gate lounge. Great. We’re not leaving from this lounge – we’ve been moved and no one has told us. Off we go to the new lounge…

2pm: Our 2pm flight still hasn’t left… we don’t even have a plane at the gate yet. Our lovely friend Jamie calls wondering how we’re going. I relay the story and he offers to pick Mia and I up from the airport while David catches the transfer bus to go and collect our car (THANK YOU!!!)

3pm: Plane takes off. Mia has cracked it, crying, screaming, tanties… what a joy.

5pm: Get to Melbourne. David heads off to the Jetstar counter to find out where the transfer bus is. Of course, there is no bus, and no one has organised a transfer from Brisbane for us. David ends up speaking to three people and finally the airport manager who gives him cash to catch a taxi to go and get the car and come home

6:10pm: We finally leave the airport and arrive home around 6:30pm.

So, what else can you do but laugh? (On a side note, I heard that Tuesday was even worse for flights in and out of Melbourne, so I should probably be thankful we left on the Monday?!)


My new old favourite location

Just over four years ago I was married in the formal gardens at the Mansion Hotel in Werribee. The most beautifully maintained, green, lush gardens combined with one fab modern hotel made it the perfect location for us.

When Jen and I were discussing possible locations for today’s session, I suggested Werribee partly because it was a personal favourite of mine and I knew it well, but also because I knew the girls would be able to run around and enjoy themselves giving us plenty of places to explore for them. I was right!

Ahhh! Lovely girls, a lovely day to practise my photography… what could be better??

Tell me after seeing this face below you wouldn’t give her anything she wanted?!

{Jen – three cheers to you for agreeing to come to Werribee for today’s session. The results were so worth it!! Your girls were a dream – if you’re ever out my way, and need a babysitter…!!}

Spain, France, England…

… just some of the places one of the girls from today’s session will be visiting in a couple of weeks time. I was asked to take some photos of Annabel, Eliza and their mum just before Annabel flies off for her glorious 7 month European working holiday in a fortnight.

Annabel was a riot – when I got home and was looking through the images from the session, every time I saw her grin my face would light up. She has the most loving, warm smile and it was such a pleasure to be around her. That’s why this is one of my favourite images from today of her (makes me giggle):

I couldn’t put my finger on who her sister Eliza reminded me of though. She had the most stunning green eyes that looked so amazing with the grass in the background. When I got home though, I realised she reminded me a little of Leelee Sobieski (sorry if you get that often Eliza!!)… so gorgeous.

As it always happens though, the girl started to relax a bit right as the sesson was ending, and that’s when their personalities really came out. They had me in stitches!! Here I was trying to get a nice shot of the two of them for mum… and this is what we ended up with:

All completely out of focus and movement galore, and I love them all…

{Annabel, have the most wonderful time on your trip away. Eliza, I know you’ll miss her – the photos don’t lie!! Deb – your girls are so gorgeous, you should be very proud of them!}

Little Baby Olivia

Little Baby Olivia was only born into this world on Monday to my lovely friend Nat, and here I was 6 days later, lucky enough to spend a few hours capturing a brief moment in her life.

I love, love, love newborn sessions… I always get all giggly like a kid waiting for Christmas before I do a newborn session. They’re not easy – there’s a lot of coordination, waiting around, and a lot of ‘anticipating the moment’, especially when you have babies that will only sleep in very short bursts. My newborn photography sessions will easily last 3 hours, sometimes longer as I will always take my lead from the little ones to make sure they’re happy before we take another photo.

It also doesn’t matter how prepared you are on the day either, it will always be the kids that dictate how the session will evolve!

I suppose I love these sessions so much as they truly are a snapshot in time. Any parent will be able to attest to the fact that babies change in the blink of an eye. I can guarantee you that Baby Olivia will look nothing like this in a month time… even a couple of weeks! It’s why I love being able to freeze that moment while they’re all still fresh and brand new, because it only lasts for a second.

Some sneak peeks of the precious little princess herself:

{Your baby girl is keeper Nat! Congratulations again – enjoy her and savour the early moments. Thank you so much for having me do this for you xx}

Sending my love across the ocean!

My darling best friend Debbie (BBBBBBBBF, is that right Deb?) lives over the in UK now which makes me very sad as I obviously don’t get to see her gorgeous face nearly enough. I was lucky though to have a chance to catch up with her a little while ago when she came for a visit to the land of Oz (yaaay!) and I will also get to see her again in January when she comes home to get married (double YAAAY!).

I’ve grown up with Deb’s family – we met when we were 10, so a lot of our childhood and teenage years were spent playing at each other’s houses, going on holidays (she even braved three months backpacking with me in Europe… now that says something!).

It was therefore such an honour to be asked by her gorgeous sister Karen and her husband James, to take some photos of of their oh-so-handsome baby boy Finlay. He was only teeny tiny, and so brand new at only six days old… SIX! They don’t get much fresher than that out of hospital! He was about as good as I could have hoped for too – he barely made a peep when we were trying to bend him and move him around, but as you can see, felt far more comfortable wrapped up in the arms of his new dad where it was toasty and warm.

I think this is my favourite image at the moment. That little hand grabbing daddy’s wrist…. ahhh – it KILLS ME!!!

Look closely…. can you see his baby fuzz??? SO ADORABLE!!

{Kaz and James – THANK YOU for having me come over and do this for you!! It was honour enough to meet him when he was so brand spanking new but to be able to photograph him as well…. pure joy!}

The definition of perfection

Even as I’m sitting here write now typing up this post, I still can’t get over the AMAZING house Darcy gets to live in every day.. and I mean…. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

The courtyard area was divine… I wanted so much to be able to incorporate it into Darcy’s photos somehow as I know his lovely mum and she loves that courtyard so very much, and so I did (and in the process ended up with one of my favourite shots of the day)

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The dining room table was amazing. Above it hung these amazing lights and again, it was screaming to be photographed somehow! When Darcy decided he had enough and wanted a nap, we decided to use the moment to get some creativity flowing

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And another view:

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Ok, enough about the gorgeous house because believe it or not, the house had nothing on baby Darcy. Complete and utter perfection. Lots of lovely eye contact, minimal fussing, slept wonderfully for some creative shots and then woke up from a catnap with some lovely grins! Couldn’t ask for more!

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Oh, and their fur-baby Ernie?! SO adorable – I absolutely adore it when the whole family can be involved in their photoshoot

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{Donna -I’m completely heartbroken that you’re moving to Singapore and I won’t be able to document Darcy’s first years growing up for you!! I will miss you!!!!!}