Well... it all started with the birth of my first baby...
If you had asked me 10 years ago if I ever saw myself as a newborn photographer I would laughed and laughed... Me? Work with babies? Never!
Up until the birth of my first daughter in 2019 I had absolutely no interest in babies. That's not to say I had no experience with them... in fact I spent most of my days as a Registered Nurse caring for small children and babies in the Post Ananesthetic Care Unit (PACU), as they awoke from surgery or after caesarian sections . Not only that, but I have spent many years working as a gymnastics coach and horse riding instructor, working with children of all ages.
However, I had always lacked that real maternal instinct... until my own baby was born... and then, as if overnight, a switch flicked and all of a sudden I had developed a whole new world of understanding for these tiny little creatures.
Now, I see them for the incredible little miracles that they are, how their perfect little features are an absolute work of art.
How they grow and develop so quickly blows my mind. Now, of course, I just think these little babe are the absolute bees-knees' and I could spend all day photographing them and capturing all their perfect, imperfect, fascinating little details.
A few weeks after my baby was born, we hired an incredibly talented local newborn photographer to capture some images of our baby girl. I knew absolutely nothing about newborn photography but that session opened my eyes and we just had the most fantastic time dressing our little girl in pretty things and capturing all her cute expressions.
Photography has always been something I've appreciated, I would always be the girl at the party or family event taking photos - terribly - but I always felt like these were important moments to capture, and I loved looking back on them later.
At the end of 2019 I purchased my first semi-professional camera with the goal of finally learning what all those other buttons do...
I was hoping to get out and capture some showjumping and eventing at local horse shows (since this was the world I had come from) but then at the start of 2020 - COVID arrived ... and as we all know... the world shut down and my opportunity to photograph horses ended with the lockdowns.
By this stage my daughter was 9 months old... and doing all those super cute 9 month old things, so I turned my camera to her to practice. Some very, very supportive friends then allowed my to practice on their babies (and I can not thank you guys enough... Lucy, Hayley, Tracey and a few others) with their support and encouragement I developed my skill, honed my eye and evolved my style. After about 2 years of practicing and many hours in photoshop learning how to edit and watching many many hours of online tutorials and workshops, Figure 8 Photography was born.
