I was sure struggling the morning of this shoot. It was one of those mornings, where even though I planned ahead and left myself plenty of time to get ready, I still found myself rushing out the door with all of my gear. Luckily, I had the address of the family punched into Google maps, so I set out on my journey to this unknown destination.
I arrived on a beautiful shady street, but something seemed wrong. Instead of a house, the address brought me to a small commercial building, an art studio of some sort. This was the point at which I realized that instead of choosing the directions to the house of my clients, I drove to an art studio which my manager volunteers at, and where she invited me to an upcoming event.
Whoops, I definitely learned my lesson about actually being certain where you are going. Luckily, Mel and Jacob were very understanding of my directional struggles, and we jumped right into the shoot when I arrived. The first thing I noticed about their home is the mustard-coloured door. There is really something about a door painted an unusual colour that adds a lot of personality to a house, without an insane amount of effort. We keep meaning to paint our own door green, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Turns out, mustard is Mel’s favourite colour, and I saw a lot of it around, including their daughter Sadie’s outfit. We started outside, but my favourite shots definitely come from Sadie’s sunlit nursery. Something about preserving the memory of the family hanging around in the nursery feels really genuine and important to me, and I know I wish I had more of those photos from my own childhood.
I am inspired by the fact that Mel and Jacob managed to stay interesting, outgoing adults, even with a new baby. I know the two of them through my friend Nina, and a couple of months ago, we were at a karaoke bar for her birthday. My favourite memory of the night was looking over at Mel, who was doing a spirited rendition of an early 2000s hip hop song, and there was Sadie sitting beside her in Jacob’s arms with her noise-cancelling earmuffs on, happy as a clam. That is definitely #parentgoals.
