Adelaide Photographer – Sweet Chilli Philly Photography

Today I photographed the most adorable baby girl, Zoe had the dearest little face and a little smile that melted the heart. Ben approached me a few weeks ago wanting to surprise Michelle with a special gift for mother’s day and so we arranged a photography session…

Michelle I hope you like your mother’s day gift, your daughter is just beautiful!

I will be in touch soon once your gallery is ready…

Today I had the most cheekiest, happiest little boy to photograph …he even crawled over to give me a big cuddle…this is one of the main loves of my job is meeting all these gorgeous babies and children. They truly brighten my day!

Charmaine, thanks so much for today, Angus is such a little cutie, I hope you enjoy your sneak peek and I will be in touch soon!

Last week I had a gorgeous little girl called Jessica! As we know 2.5 year old’s can be quite a challenge when it comes to wanting to sit still to get their photographs taken. Luckily I’m pretty relaxed with my sessions and prefer to wait in between to get those casual shots …even if they aren’t looking straight at the camera. She also had quite a liking for my little couch too and loved to play games with Mum and Dad while I snapped away.

Michele and Dave, thankyou for letting me photograph your little princess, she is just divine!

I wrote this article for another site but thought that it would be helpful for those that view my blog as well. I hope you enjoy reading it.

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There is nothing more joyous then photographing a newborn in those first few days of life. As a photographer I take great joy in creating memories for families and watching the pure pleasure as they see their photographs for the first time. Newborn photography to me is the most of challenging of children photography but by far is one that I could easily do every day.

I recommend when wanting newborn photographs to have them photographed before they are 2 weeks old – although I find the best age is between 7-10 days old. Usually once over the 2-3 week mark it can be hard to get those sleepy curly shots and they can be harder to settle although this isn’t to say that a 7 day old baby will sleep better then a 3-6 weeker but in my experience they do tend to be much more settled.

Newborn sessions can be a long process on the day and I find a lot of the time can be spent waiting for the baby to get into a deep slumber so I tell parents not to stress if feed or change breaks are needed, babies work on their own schedule and not ours so usually expect a session to range from about 2 -4 hours long.

Don’t be afraid to get into the photographs either as family photos are so important, that time in your lives is so fleeting and is such a magical journey to bring a new baby into the word. Those images will remain a keepsake to be treasured.

Tips for taking photographs of your own children

I know how people can feel frustrating when trying to take their own beautiful photographs of their children so I thought I would list some tips to help make things a little easier.

1. Find the light! Don’t be afraid to turn off the flash on your camera and look for the surrounding like around you. Look for a nice big window that you could position baby in front of it and see how you go with some nice natural light photographs. If you have older children maybe take them outside for some photographs. If you can take the photos either in the early morning or later in the evening (before light fades). During the day the lighting can become harsh for outside photos and cause unflattering shadowing on faces or squinting.

2. On the move! The one thing with toddlers and older children is that they don’t like to sit still while getting photographs taken, which is totally fine for some fantastic candid shots. The can be the best photographs as it can show what they do best…being kids! It can be great to show what they were doing at that time in their lives and is perfect for a memoir album or coffeetable book.

3. Get down to their level! My last tip is to get down to the children’s level. It’s great to see things from their point of view and it can help with any distortion you may get when taking a photo from up above. I like to get down on the floor with the kids and interact with them while taking photo and is fabulous for interaction shots.

I hope these hints and tips are helpful and I’m always happy to answer basic photography questions at any time.

Today’s second session was with 13 day old Charli. Honestly she was a dream to work with and barely opened an eye during the whole session with her…Oh if only every newborn session I had was as sleepy as this!

Amber, I hope you enjoy your sneak peek and I will be in touch with you soon!

I love the expression in this one

Thanks to the Generosity of Adelaide Photographers, we are proud to announce the Clicks for Kids Charity Auction starting on the 31st October 2009.

You will have the chance to purchase a photo shoot for yourself, your family, your wedding – or as the ideal Christmas Gift – and all funds raised will go towards the fees to enable volunteers to English to the kids (and adults)! at the Nong Khai Nursery and Primary School in Northern Thailand.

Sweet Chilli Philly Photography will be offering a Maternity/newborn package currently worth $550 which includes two 12×18 prints, 6 digital negatives (3 images from each session) of your choice on CD and the design of custom made birth announcement cards.

For this auction, it starts at $200 and has no reserve.  You could possibly get this package for a great bargain – but more importantly, all funds raised will go to Clicks For Kids, to help with a fantastic cause.

You can find out about the auction here: Maternity/ Newborn package by Sweet Chilli Philly Photography

Today I got to photograph the most adorable 11 day old baby boy Archer. He is the most placid of babies and even though he only slept for about five minutes (lol!) he didn’t murmer or cry once. Just check out his gorgeous full head of hair…he was such a sweetie!

Dani, thanks for letting me photograph your gorgeous baby boy, he was a delight to photograph! I hope you enjoy your sneak peek and I will be in touch with you soon.

Yes it’s that time again…it’s Friday! Apart from having my favourite photo of the day for you I also have an awesome competition for you to enter! So you have from now until the 28th of August to email me at ssmoke@adam.com.au with your favourite photo and I also want you to tell me in 25 words or less why it’s your favourite. First prize will receive a complimentary session with me or may choose a package with $100 off! How awesome is that! Second prize will receive a $20 gift voucher from Coles Myer and 10% off my session fees/packages and third prize will receive 10% off my session fees packages!

Entries must reside in Adelaide, South Australia and have only 12 months to use their prizes (Coles Myer voucher may be different).  Winners will be notified by email and both photo and entry will be displayed on my blog.

Anyway to finish off here is my favourite for today. One of my most favourite sessions is newborns and as challenging as it is I just love to photograph them, all that newness to the world and that baby smell is just divine!

Yesterday Tristan left to go with his Nanna and Poppa to go caravanning so while he was off having fun one on one time with his grandparents Stephen and I decided to take Ethan for some one on one down at the park this morning. Was a great opportunity for Ethan to try out his new hand made (not by me) bright red hat and scarf. Doesn’t he just look warm and snuggly!

And just one of Ethan and his Dad having some fun!

Todays photo was quite a challenge, this session is from back in January and because I had so many favourites from this session I found it really hard to choose just one favourite! Of course this one has been one of my main favourites for a long time.  There is just something about a baby bump, carrying that little miracle inside called a human being…

Also don’t forget to keep an eye out for a compeition next week so have those favourite photos ready!