One of the most unexpected, but simply wonderful benefits of doing this (bloody fantastic) job of mine is all the amazing photographers I’ve met, not only from Australia but from around the world. I did not expect that when I decided to leave corporate life that I would meet so many talented and wonderful humans. I expected that I would be working alone, from home, with no one to reach out to for help and advice, no one to share the triumphs with and no one to meet.

How very wrong I was!

Instead what I found was online communities filled with hundreds of female photographers, who have all been more than willing to share themselves across the digital divide of 1’s and 0’s. I have always been wary of ‘meeting’ people online and have always found it so weird to tell the physical people in my life that I have a whole community of friends out there, that I know only from sitting on keyboards.

And it’s because of these online communities that I have met so many of these wonderful humans in person. I’ve done workshops, caught up for coffee, drunk way too much wine with, and done the odd midnight, cocktail infused cartwheel with - but that’s a whole other story.

In May last year I got to meet a heap of these ladies when we all decided to ditch the keyboard and all spend a few days in a giant house at the Gold Coast with no real plans but to actually meet in person and talk in person, and drink coffee and wine in person. It was such a great few days (my liver thought otherwise), but it was here that I met Kylie in person. She’s an super friendly and very talented photographer and family filmmaker from Sydney (check out her website here https://kyliepurtell.com.au/).

Then last September, when she was down in Albury for a family event, she offered to come and photograph and film our family for us, on our favourite hill in Albuy. I am forever grateful to her and bloody amazing skills at capturing my family not only in photos, but in the most gorgeous film. My now 5 year old still cries every time she watches it! You can see it here.

So when we went to Sydney in June this year I offered to capture some photos for her and her family. As a photographer and a mum, I know how rare and hard it is to be IN the photos, rather than taking them all the time. We headed down to the Paddington Reservoir Gardens, then went for a walk around the back streets of Paddington.