Growing Up Good - Te Mata Peak Family Portrait Photography Session

Spending time with Mel and her family made me want to rush home and create more babies (briefly!). As a mum-of-two, normally even the thought of more would seem beyond exhausting but an hour spent with the four Macredie kids and their folks made me appreciate what an amazing unit they’d created, and I absolutely wanted to capture this while we were shooting.

When creating photography of older children and young adults, it’s just as important to capture a sense of personality as it is with little ones, but its often harder as this age group can be camera-shy and a little reserved, especially with strangers pointing cameras. I was really grateful the Macredie kids were so open about letting me shoot them, and also open to having fun with it!

After an hour goofing around with everyone on Te Mata Peak in Hawke’s Bay, I felt really stoked because we were all being clowns and having fun, and that enabled me to make photography that would always remind this family what being together felt like, especially at a time in life when the eldest had just left home to strike out alone.

Mel had a really clear vision of what she wanted from our family portrait photography session in regards to epic light and so it was a big call that she agreed to my plan to switch from a sunrise session at 5.30am (!!!!) on Napier beach to sunset at the amazing Te Mata Peak in Hawke’s Bay. So as we headed toward the close of our session in cloudy conditions, I was feeling pretty responsible for Mother Nature’s failure to perform. When the sun slid between a layer of cloud and the hills for two glorious minutes before disappearing, we got busy!

Before blogging, I always ask my subjects if they’d like to contribute their thoughts on why they decided to invest in a family portrait photography session with me. As always, I’m humbled by what people say and a big thanks to Mel and her crew for being awesome and making it easy to do what I do!

“We have had several professional photo sessions over the years and have never received such a beautiful package as we did from Eva. I was slightly skeptical about investing so much money because although previous photos have been good none have ever exceeded our expectations before Eva. Her service is outstanding, she really takes the time to get to know you and understand what you are wanting to achieve from the shoot. We all felt completely at ease on the day because of her patience and empathy. The photos really captured who we are and the joy and happiness we feel being together and the entire process was such a special moment for our family. 

In the end, the investment was tiny compared to what we got out of it.

Eva - thank you for your kindness and for delivering above and beyond what was promised. The photos you took of our family are the best we have ever had and we are all absolutely thrilled with them. See you next time”.

- Mel