For us, no trip to Melbourne is complete without catching up with friends. And it’s hard to find friends more fun to spend time with than Neil, Renee, Jotham and Noah.

On a recent trip we decided to do a fun family Christmas photo session with them. Problem: how to do a fun Christmas shoot without resorting to Santa beards, crazy hats, flashing bowties or reindeer antlers?  Together we came up with a different solution: letting them be the gifts themselves! Renee created these very fun but wildly uncomfortable costumes for them to wear and we spent a hilarious afternoon in a park watching them falling over and trying to stand up. Hailey was laughing so hard she found it very difficult to keep them all in the frame! Of course it probably would have been nice to help them, but it was too much fun just pointing and laughing.

Hope you had a good laugh at Christmas time too! Happy New Year!

Family photos are so much FUN!

Actually it might be kids!! I love how with kids you can plan all you like but really my favorite  photos come from letting go and seeing what funny and cute moments they will create just being themselves!

When I catch a shot like the first photo below, it makes me so happy!

A slightly random and hilarious moment, probably happens every second day, but I love that I got to capture just the right moment to keep this fresh in these little girls memories for many years to come! I love my job!

Rachelle has the most fantastic sense of style, I loved all their outfits and the delightful combination of colour. Thanks Rachelle for choosing me to capture your gorgeous family!

We have been back from the U.S for nearly 3 weeks but only tonight have I managed to look over the shots we took. Ahhh… so so many fun fun memories!

I went to Chicago to do a job for a fantastic company based there. It was a wonderful time and I hope soon to post more about that job. Not only was it a fun little film to make, but the people I met were amazing! Inspiring and extremely good to me!!

We didn’t think the kids and Andrew would be able to come but last minute (the week before) we managed to juggle it! They stayed in L.A while I went tripping off to Chicago by myself. I am rarely without my gorgeous kids and Andrew, so being alone I thought would be hard – but it was fantastic! I had a ball! Will talk more about that when I can share the video with you.

When the job was finished I headed back to my little family and we had a fantastic time playing around Santa Monica and all the other fun things to do in L.A.

Here are a few pics from Chicago.

Then back in L.A doing what it seems everyone does… ride bikes! And also a little less popular – dig very deep holes and nearly get lost in them…

I had my birthday over there and went to the largest LOMOGRAPHY store in the world! Yippeeee! I also managed to purchase another plastic fantastic for my collection!

Lastly we met up with my totally fantastic brother and his cute family.

They drove ALL the way from Colorado to visit us!! We had the best time hanging out with them and even went to the ‘Happiest place on Earth!’ Disneyland of course. (and despite my skepticism it was so fun! – except for the part where we lost my brother’s 5 year old daughter for half an hour…urg!) Seeing my brother and his family was wonderful… So fun we are going to have to plan another trip!