The specs

Newborn studio photography session at the family’s home in Auckland

The family

Shekinah's parents knew from when they first met and fell in love that they wanted to build a family. Then came a long stretch of getting their hopes up, only to have them crashing down again with one negative pregnancy test after another. Month after month brought frustration, hopelessness and despair. They wondered if their dreams would ever come true – and then, finally, the test showed what they had been hoping and praying for! They wanted to have these photos of Shekinah as a newborn to remind them how much she was worth the wait.

The design brief

Pink and pretty! The family wanted lots of girly pinks, flowers and bright colours.

The artwork

We were shooting for digital files in this session. As much as the family would have loved some artwork for their walls, their budget meant that they would have to leave this for down the track and make do with digital files in the meantime.

The session

This session had a very rocky start, thanks to a gastro bug that thundered through my family! When I got in touch to see if we could reschedule, the family was already well into what turned out to be a 6 hour trip down from Auckland to the hotel they had booked in Cambridge for the night. I felt so terrible to have to mess up their plans after all their efforts - but not quite as terrible as my gut felt thanks to the bug!! Armed with a bonus gift card to thank them for their understanding and patience, I ventured up to their family home in Auckland a few days later for the session.

After all the drama of getting to the photo shoot, the session itself was a dream! Aside from one very hungry little girl who didn't want to stop feeding long enough to get started with her photos, everything went perfectly, and I couldn't have asked for a nicer family to work with. Dad even managed to stumble out from a deep sleep (he's a shift worker) and straight into a family photo, without a single complaint!