Little Miss Audrey is the niece of a very good friend of mine Toni Southwell from Hyde Clothing. Toni and I worked together years ago and have kept in touch over the years. Michelle and Scott, Audrey’s mum and dad live in a gorgeous house really close to the city. They have an AMAZING park nearby and we took a stroll through a couple of urban settings to get there and back.

It was something different for me, so I got to play a bit with some cool graffiti backdrops and some urban landscapes. Audrey looks just a cherub – complete with blonde curly hair, chubby cheeks and an adorable pout. It took her a while to warm to me, but we managed to coax some smiles out of her towards the end. I know Audrey’s extended family will be waiting patiently to see the photos, so without further ado, here they are…

Posted by Netra on Mar 7th 2010 | adult - child - family - photography
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Bec Hall from Shoot the Family approached me looking for a new logo and identity for her photography business. Bec has a love of all things retro and as she was talking about her vision for the brand the song that popped into my head was Bryan Adam’s “Summer of 69″.

I wanted her look to be about scorching hot days at the beach, ice-creams that melt too fast and scratchy transistor radios. I really got into the retro groove with this project and was just about to don my afro wig and flares, when I came up with this concept. Bec said:

“Love, love, love!  It’s fun, it’s full of sunshine and retro, it’s all about summer… I just wanted to let you know that I am so, so happy with what you’ve done.  Thank you so much!”

  So without futher ado, here it is!

Posted by Netra on Mar 3rd 2010 | corporate - design - family - graphic design - photography
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For those who don’t know, I am winding down the portrait side of my business. I have found it a challenge to produce my design work during the week and then photograph other families on the weekends. I end up working 7 days a week and my family misses me! So for now, I will only be doing commercial and corporate photography shoots – and will  do a handful of portrait sessions for friends and family throgh the year.

This family was going to be my last official portrait session (but I’ve scheduled another next week for a family who were given a gift voucher and of course I will still be honouring all gift vouchers).

I got to photograph Jed and Abbey whose gorgeous blue eyes you can see below. Abbey was a delight, such a bubbly and fun child to photograph. Mr J was a bit more serious, and it took him a while to warm up to me, until we started playing peek-a-boo and then it was all good!

Some photos from the session…

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Posted by Netra on Mar 1st 2010 | child - family - photography
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I had distinct pleasure of photographing the 10-day old baby Jamie this week. Her mum Enjel and I have been friends since highschool – actually we didn’t like each other very much to start, but clearly things changed after a while and we’ve remained friends over the past 17 or so years.

I don’t often get to photograph newborns, and the fact that Jamie is the daughter of one of my closest friends made her even that much more special to me. I was pretty happy with the photos while at the same time being so scared that Enjel and her husband Ray wouldn’t like them! Thankfully they do, so all is well!

Congratulations Enjel and Ray, she is just the sweetest thing and I hope to capture many, many more photos of her as she grows up!

Posted by Netra on Jan 29th 2010 | baby - family - personal - photography
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A few weeks ago Samantha Pearce very generously photographed our family. As a photographer, I have thousands of photos of the kids, and less than a handful of photos of  me and them together. Sam and I decided to do a swap, and so after many many cloudy, rainy days, we decided to brave the ominous clouds last week and head out to the same spot for her family photos. Can I just say there is something absolutely terrifying about photographing another photographers family. We both have such different styles, but the same bundle of nerves. I must also apologise for making Sam, Craig and the kids walk up and down the endless beach holding hands. I simply had no idea how many times I’d asked them to do it, so there is an overadundance of those photos BUT…

here they are…

Posted by Netra on Dec 11th 2009 | adult - child - family - photography
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Megan and I had been trying to schedule this session for a while now. First there was illness in my home, then Megan had a conference on and we finally managed to schedule and keep it – one one of the hottest November days on record!

The session was at 10am and it was already sweltering, so we were unable to do any outdoor shots, lest the children burn to a crisp. Megan had a great back room flooded with natural light which I took full advantage of to capture these shots. Anika did make me work for the smiles, but it was well worth it in the end.

Such a gorgeous family, you can just feel the love in the family photo.

Posted by Netra on Nov 23rd 2009 | child - family - photography
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On Saturday I had the distinct pleasure of photographing these two gorgeous girls. Apart from their cute names, they were equally adorable in person. Sophia and I hit it off right from the start and it didn’t take much to coax a smile once the pettiskirts were on!

It was the first time I’d had a chance to use the teeny-tiny pettis from Marcella Creations in a client session and I was stoked with the results. David and Kath had just bought a gorgeous new home and the front two rooms were a flooded with natural light and white walls – truly a photographers dream to shoot in! All the lovely neutral colours were the perfect backdrop of these shots and I love the peachy tones of the family photos.

The first shot is my absolute favourite from the session. I wish I had one with my girls like it! I’d have it as a giant canvas in the living room *sigh*

David and Kath, enjoy your sneak peek!

Posted by Netra on Nov 8th 2009 | adult - baby - child - family - photography
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For a family like ours, that has lost many of its traditions and a significant amount of culture over the past few generations (2 immigrations in 5 generations tends to do that!) I do try to let my kids have some understanding and experience of their rich cultural heritage. By doing so I learn a bit more myself.

Diwali, the Indian Festival of Light, is one of the times that I remember fondly from my childhood. My aunt and my grandmother, all working together in the kitchen to produce some of the most mouth-watering, decadent sweet treats from old family recipes. While they worked for days in the heat of the kitchen, we would run through trying to pilfer a favourite here and there, get scolded, and unabashedly try again.

On the day we would receive new clothes, get dressed in our best, package up all the sweets into festive plates of goodies and take them to family, friends and neighbours as a gesture of goodwill. In the evening we would light the clay lamps along the verandahs and strive valiantly to ensure none were blown out by the winds. Inevitably in Durban, it was always rainy or windy on Diwali.

The best part of the evening were the fireworks. My grandfather used to buy boxes of them well in advance for all the grandkids. Roman candles, Tom-Thumbs and a host of others that whizzed, swirled, popped, or simple exploded overhead in magical showers of light.

As many of the foods made on Diwali are only made on this one occasion each year, I took the opportunity to photograph some of the sweets. I was supposed to be packaging up the plates but instead I was trying to make the most of the fading light, my mother’s dining room table (already overflowing with trays of food) to capture the colour, the richness and the variety to share. And if you think they look good, the flavour is indescribable…

Happy Diwali everyone!

Posted by Netra on Oct 17th 2009 | family - personal - photography
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Yesterday I had the pleasure of photographing the scrumptious, 11week old Matthew. Matthew wasn’t feeling the best, but still kept me entertained with lots of chatter and sweet gurgles and coos. I managed to capture a few cheeky smiles and those cheeks were just the sweetest thing. His parents had the most amazing terrace garden and the day was so lovely we stepped outside for some candid family shots as well. Here are a few of my favourites from the day.

Posted by Netra on Sep 20th 2009 | baby - family - photography
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This week at Kyra’s school was “Book Week” and they had a safari theme. On Friday parents and friends were invited to a parade of the animals and the fabulous teachers put on a pantomime for the kids. It was hilarious – with the Principal and the Dean both dressing up as gorillas. I think the willingness of the people in authority to do crazy things like this makes them so much more approachable in the eyes of the junior school students.

Kyra requested a leopard outfit quite early on, and my grand visions of making a costume came to a grinding halt when I discovered the fabric cost $69/m. Off to local toy shop we went where this snazzy leopard outfit was only $50 and probably much better looking than one I could turn out.

Not to be left out, Lia was bribed with face-paint, a pettiskirt from Marcella Creations (website launching next week – watch this space) and ‘her’ leopard print jacket that was a gift to Kyra from their godmother Kasia (who bemoaned the fact that they were not available in adult sizes). I have to say this jacket has fared impressively well over the last 5 year and still looks in mint condition – a near miracle given how often its gets worn.

Anyway – some pics of my wild African children from today…

Posted by Netra on Aug 27th 2009 | child - family - personal - photography
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