Real love stories - where it all came from...
the real you.
Something a little more personal and close to my heart (it's really long, like an essay, hang in there haha).
As most of you are aware, I have {finally} launched my website! So, what took me so long? I know you can make a website in about an hour using a website builder site like Wix. Why didn't I just quickly throw something together? Probably because I am a bit of a perfectionist and because I was waiting until I found 'my vision' ... I had to wait until the heart of Lemon Poppy came to me... and where I want to take this photography business of mine. As with most things in life, I try to trust my gut instinct (I do this with my sessions as well, I wait until I get a feeling for the location, or the shoot style, and go with it.. and so many times weird things happen and everything falls in place as though it was 'meant to be' - ask Courtney and Jake about this one haha!!!). For the past few months, I really thought about my vision for lemon poppy and the style - what does 'lemon poppy' look like? I tried various designs for logos, marketing material etc and nothing just felt RIGHT. Nothing felt like me.
So I left it... I continued on doing sessions and let the crazy busy year pass. I always felt as though I have a unique photography style, but I really couldn't put it into words - I didn't know how to explain it...I was just doing something? But what?
A young girl was collecting rocks and she wanted to give these to her Mum as a gift during the session, so I took a photo of her sweet smile (she was so excited to take them home), then the rocks in her tiny hands (so we can remember how tiny their hands once were) and the look on her Mama’s face when she gave them to her. These tiny details make up the bigger picture… ‘the story’. I have been doing this in all of my sessions and in all honesty, I didn’t know why - all I knew was that I felt these were important to capture so that you can look back on these memories in the next 10, 20, 50 years. For my newborn sessions, I ask the parents to bring a special wrap (it could be so random, but it’s maybe a wrap their newborn came home in, or was passed down through the family), because in 20 years when they are adults, we will want to look back on photos of our baby in that special blanket (that you will probably still have stashed away somewhere right!!!).
I recently captured Ingrid's wedding and the feedback from her wedding gallery was amazing! But it was comments like this "she tells a story through her photos" that was the click in my brain - that's what I am doing in my sessions! I am telling god damn STORIES! Uh hello, that's it! So I googled "visual storytelling" -- is this actually a thing? Well, turns out it is! It is everything I have been doing in my sessions and now it finally came to me.
I AM TELLING YOUR LOVE STORIES!
And not just your wedding day love stories, but all kinds of love… from family love, to sibling love, to young couples to married couples… the love between your family and your new puppy… everything.
So…
This was the starting point for my website design. I am a storyteller (both visual and written - as I do like to write a lot of long posts sorry). So the words you see on my website or on my Facebook posts about "let me capture your stories" or "let's tell your story" - they are NOT meaningless words copied from google. They are actually SO CLOSE TO MY HEART it's not even funny!!! I don't know if you would call it my slogan, but it really is my vision for Lemon Poppy for our future; to tell stories. Your stories.
When I build things like my website, or marketing material, I don't just choose any random words and throw them together because they sound nice. I put in so much effort, and so much attention to detail, because this is what I do when capturing your photographs. I choose these specific designs, these floral prints, and most importantly, these words because they come from my heart. And this is how I am able to capture your real love stories. I didn't start Lemon Poppy because I wanted to make money. I could earn a sh*t load more doing my day job. I started it because I am aware that I have a gift, a gift that instantly makes people feel comfortable in front of me and they trust me to capture real love and emotions (even when I am about 20cm from their faces telling them to kiss passionately - normally that would be super creepy in front of someone you just met right?). I don't want to feel like a stranger with a camera, I have a gift that helps people feel relaxed and to just trust me...and this is how I get those raw emotions. Rubi and Lance...the first photo on my website, I have captured such an intimate moment between two people so madly in love... and when you look at it, it's almost as though I wasn't there; they are in their own world, just enjoying that special moment on their wedding day. What do you see in the photo? Calmness, love?
When Rubi and Lance were going through their wedding photos, Rubi was sending me messages of her crying - and then I cried again seeing her crying..then her bloody Mum messaged me and we cried! Too many emotions but I live for this!!!! This is the emotion I want to spark in your photographs and this is why I give so much of me to every single session. This is why Rubi wrote me the sweetest letter and left me a beautiful gift basket... because she can truly see what goes on behind the scenes of everything I do, and that everything I do is for my clients that put their trust in me.
I have had so many families reply back to me telling me they are in tears because of the photos I have captured for them (my favourite was Tori and Mick, and getting photos of her wild little girl Matilda. She replied back with comments that I have truly captured her daughter's unique spark and she was in tears), and that is making me cry again. Or when people tell me their partner or husband never smiles in photos and HATES them... and I get that nice smiling photo where they are laughing together and so in love.
THIS IS THE REASON WHY I AM DOING THIS. FOR YOU ALL AND THESE STORIES!
