Let me tell you a story.

One upon a time there was one very creative mum (let’s call her Ammber) and one very creative dad (we’ll call him Justin). They had one very ambitious three year old boy (who we’ll call Oscar) and one very cruisy 4 month old girl (let’s call her Evie), and together they made one seriously awesome Doyle family. That was their family super-power – making awesome.

One day, they realised they had made so much awesome that they didn’t need it all, but they didn’t know what to do with it. What does one do with surplus awesomeness? And then it hit them – one creates an AWESOME kids clothing label!

And so MyArkadia was born, a childrens’ clothing line with pieces so amazing I want to wear them myself. I’m not even kidding. I mustn’t be the only grown-up Arkadian either, because Ammber and Justin have just done their first run of ladies shirts (one of which has my name on it!! YES!!). If you like unique, environmentally-conscious and seriously cool kids clothes (or just awesome stuff in general) you should definitely check out MyArkadia right now. And then come straight back here for the rest of this post!

I had the honour of catching up with this Family of Awesome on two lovely Sunday mornings to make the memories you see below. I’ll let their photos tell you the rest of the story.

Way back in March, I held a family portrait giveaway on my Facebook page. I do that sometimes – have competitions and stuff – on my Facebook so if you haven’t “liked” my page yet, go do it now! The lovely family you see below was one of the winners of this giveaway, and we caught up to make some lovely sunny memories after rescheduling due to bad weather TWICE. Anita is half of the dynamic duo that make up Paper Dolls – The Lost Art – masters of amazing custom stationery, invitations and papercraft, and you should definitely check them out if you like pretty things (and honestly, who doesn’t like pretty things?)

I hope these photos bring some warmth and love and sunshine into your day!

Things I have learned from experience about photographing children #74: bribing them with lollies works a treat! (Pardon my pun…)

If you’re planning on having a portrait session (any kind of session – not just a family shoot), I can’t recommend enough having your session at a location that means something to you. The Griffiths are from Brisbane, but they have a holiday home near this beach and spend their happiest days together jumping off sand dunes, chasing after Pip the Dog, and generally being the most adorable family ever.

That makes these photos extra-special – they’re not just a record of how the boys looked as kids and how they connected as a family in January of the year 2012 (although that stuff is super-important too), they’re also little photographic time-capsule portals to some of the most wonderful days of their lives (like sands through the hourglass… Quick! Queue the music!) when the kids built forts atop the sand dunes and buried each other under sandcastles.

Having the Griffiths’ family portrait session on this beach made their photos that much more significant. And having your photographs taken somewhere that means something to you will make yours that much more significant too.