Jennifer Stocks Photography – The Blog

It’s kids mini session time! The perfect opportunity to get some updated shots of your little one (or big one), whatever the case may be. I have a pretty flyer made up, but for some reason my blog won’t let me post it tonight. I’ll give it a go tomorrow. Anyhow….

The idea behind these sessions are to allow parents to get some updated photographs of their kids without having to book a full session. My aim is to focus on each child individually and capture some amazing portraits. I would SO do this, if I wasn’t a photographer (which I am, so I don’t have to!)

The package cost is $300 per child, and you will  be given the link to an online gallery with 10-15 beautifully edited proofs to select from. As part of the package you will also receive three 5×7 inch desk prints and one 11×14 inch wall print, with the option of purchasing more prints and the digital files. If you want to have two siblings photographed, the cost will be $550.

These sessions are perfect for parents with 1 or 2 kids. If you have more than 2 kids or are wanting a family session, it is best to book a regular session with me as the shoot would depart from the whole concept of the mini-session! These sessions are not suitable for babies under 3 months old as a great deal more time is required to photograph this age group. The sessions are open to all other kids, toddlers and even teenagers. I am happy to photograph a maximum of 2 siblings together, but the cost will be$550, and and each child will receive what is outlined in the package.

At this stage, I am opening up one date on Tuesday 21st September, and will possibly open up another mid-week or weekend date if required.  A $100 deposit is required within one week of making your booking, and is non-refundable if you cancel the session.

So, get in touch with me if you are interested! Just email me on djstocks@bigpond.com to register your interest.

Little Will is an absolute little sweetheart. Big blue eyes, a gorgeous smile and creamy golden skin. He was made with some pretty incredible genetics, which will no doubt ensure he grows from cute baby to handsome man.

I photographed Jamie and Sam’s wedding about 18 months ago. It was an amazing and beautiful wedding in every way. Check it out here. These guys are wonderful parents. Jamie is pretty much the perfect mum, and as a dad, Sam is a complete natural. You can see this boy is going to be a BOY alright. I reckon Sam is already itching to get him kicking a footy. A physical babe too – I think he’s the kind of baby that will roll early, sit early, walk early….  Most of all though, I think Will is a little babe who will be loved by many.

Jamie and Sam, thanks for having me photograph your beautiful boy (in your incredibly stunning home – LOVE it!). I hope you enjoy your preview and I will be in touch shortly with your full gallery. xx

Day 2 of documenting the life of my family over the month of August. Stay tuned for a picture a day of my family just being themselves.

Captured – I hate to admit it, but this one wasn’t actually taken today. It was taken about a week ago, but today was a day of sick kiddos and zero natural light. It just didn’t work today. Luckily I love this image of Beau, and I am happy to be able to include it.

The Story – So, right now I have my sick boy on my lap – Dusty that is. We are going to write about Beau together. So, I will be the scribe while my beautiful big boy tells us all about his little brother Beau. This is what he has to say:

“Beau is my little boy brother. He sometimes mucks around but he is a really good boy. Sometimes he scares the cat. Sometimes he tries to do the big boy stuff that I can do. He is three years old and I know he gets up to tricks. I try to stop his tricks and mucking around. And also I really love him. And he’s the greatest brother, but sometimes he mucks around that crazy kid. Sometimes he wants to be on the funniest home videos. He’s a very cheeky kid. I would really love to make him go on a train ride, but really he would like to go on a tractor ride. He’s really great. He comes up with really great ideas. He likes to watch Little Einsteins and Mister Maker. He likes Bo on the Go and Brum. Also sometimes he likes to watch stuff with great characters and sometimes stuff with naughty characters. Beau likes to eat apples, rice bubbles and sometimes he likes to eat bananas. He likes to enjoy when we have pizza. He likes going to the chippy shop and the Beekeepers place and the racing car park. He likes to play with tractors, and he plays with Mitchell and sometimes he tries to put funny hats on him. He chooses books for us to read, and sometimes they are very funny books and we laugh about dogs together. He likes to play with the Geotrax, and his remote control train – Seaside Flyer. And I only have a geotrax train to push – it’s Stumpy. I like playing with Beau because he is a great friend to me. He helps me when I need to do something, like when I slip off the lounge he tries to pull me up again. We watch shows together and sometimes when Beau isn’t here it makes me very sad. He really likes to do some dances, like the funky muffin man dance on Shrek.”

Cute! That is 99% verbatim. I did jam it all together when typing, as the new sentences and paragraphing would have made this blog post a thesis. I did ask some questions from time to time if he was running out of things to say, but overall it’s a  true representation. It’s beautiful to me. It has to be. I’m his mummy. And this little guy pictured underneath is beautiful too. Beau, darling. You are a little ray of sunshine in our lives. You are such a good-natured little guy, with a zest for life, a wicked sense of humour and a cheeky smile. You could get away with almost anything, just by flashing that grin and those dimples of yours. Your charisma just oozes out. You are a wonderful helper with your little brother. You are so kind and are always thinking of other people. You always shout to your big brother when you see or hear ANY kind of reference to trains, “DUST – there’s a train on TV”, or “DUST – look at the train over there”, because you know how much he loves them. You are so good at packing away your toys. You are fiercely independent, and believe you can do anything. I know you can.

Your favourite thing to say to me is, “You’re so boootiful mummy”, and you know it works a charm – every time. I love you little guy. I always will. Every single day.

Introduction – Day 1 of documenting the life of my family over the month of August. Today is the very first day. This is a personal project I conducted over the month of January 2010 with some photography friends. I loved it so much, I’ve decided to do it again. It’s time to celebrate what our family is now.

You see, in January I was in the last month of pregnancy with our third little baby boy. Doing the project was the most amazing way to capture the last month of our lives as a family of four. Our little baby Mitchell Quinn Stocks arrived on the 3rd February. He just missed the boat on my January photo a day, but I am hoping to make up for it this month. The little baby stage is passing and I miss it already. I want to remember it so badly. I cannot forget what my little people are like right now. I must not.

You can take a picture and keep it forever. It brings back vivid memories. But take a picture and add some words about how you felt at that time and that moment, and it just escalates to be something so incredibly special to your family, and your life. So, for the next month I will do my best to photograph and write about the everyday happenings, the love, the mundane, the wonderfulness, the crap parts and the tangible things that are important to us right now. Some days I won’t say much ( if there’s something really good on tv that night), but mostly I will be on the ball.

So, here we go.

Day 1 of documenting the life of my family over the month of August. Stay tuned for a picture a day of my family just being themselves.

Captured as we went for a Sunday drive.

The story – Bathurst is hardly known for it’s tropical balmy winters, yet it’s not freezing here either. Australian’s just like to whinge a lot about the cold. Recently we were in Brisbane and at 24 degrees, the Brisbanites (you know who you are) were whinging about how cold it was. Seriously people…..that’s bikini weather for us Bathurstians.

When you live in a cold place, sometimes you have really got to force yourself to get amongst it. So, last night we decided we would get our crew of little people out the door for a Sunday drive. We headed up to Orange for no real reason, and along the way experienced a little honey tasting, and antiques viewing at the Bee Keepers Inn (which is a really lovely place that we would never have experienced if we weren’t on a granny style Sunday drive).

Our next stop was marked by a brunette manequinn in a red dress – Darcy’s Old Wares. It you haven’t been there, it’s one of those crazy ye olde shoppe’s where they would probably charge $120 for a barbie-doll with only one remaining limb, but…. despite that, i’ve always liked that old place. It’s got character, and the ever-changing manequinn out the front of the store always entices the curious at heart to venture in.

There’s been an old phone booth out front of the store forever. Today it became the place where Dusty and Mitch sat for a photo.  Beau didn’t want to get off his dad’s shoulders to hop in, so today is all about Dusty and Mitch. There is something so remarkable about the way the older boys are with their little brother. I’m proud to see the way they treat him.

So, that was half our day. The remainder of the day was spent driving around. Pizza for lunch. Little Einsteins. Lamb cutlets with veges. Cleaning. Reading at bedtime. Chatting with Dusty about what stuff I got for my birthday when I was a kid (not sleepy after falling asleep in car this arvo). We also discussed ways he could make a film. Now it’s time for bed.

I look forward to tomorrow. How could I not? I’ll wake to the sound of a crying baby, but I know when he sees me i’ll get an enormous, dimpled smile.

Some serious cuteness is about to follow. Serious and major cuteness….

This cute little guy came to visit me today for some baby shots. He is 8 weeks old now. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to do newborn shots because this poor little guy was really sick after he was born and spent the first 6 or so weeks or so of his life in hospital. Winston’s mum, Jess, is my cousin. In an uncanny twist of fate, both my sister and cousin went into labour on the SAME day, SAME hospital. How cool is that? Very cool, I think… They even shared a room after the babes were born. Nothing like killing two birds with one stone at visiting time!

Today it was great to catch up with the two of them. We were also joined by my sister and her little baby girl. Our three babies had a play (well, they all laid on the play-mat next to each other if you can call that playing), while we shared some cuppa’s and yabbered on. Here are some images I took of this stunning baby boy today. Jess & Aaron, I hope you love them as much as I do! Oh, and I HAD to add the one where he looks like Superman. What a dude! He also has this hilarious tongue pokey-out thing happening, and I absolutely LOVE it. You know, with babes,  it’s those kind of special little things that you want to remember forever.