I caught up with this amazing group for some pre-deb photos at the Tim Neville Arboretum in Ferntree Gully over the weekend. What a stunning group of young people they were! I hope you all had a fantastic night and I look forward to sharing your full gallery with you very soon!

What Christmas traditions does your family have?

For us, one of our big ones is Buddy, our Elf of the Shelf. He arrives on December 1st each year and ensures that some Christmas fun is had in our household not matter how busy we are.

If you haven't heard of Elf on the Shelf you can find out more information at www.elfontheshelf.com. We purchased our Elf from www.bookdepository.co.uk but there are plenty of places that you can pick one up.

Now don't get me wrong, this can be time consuming if you let it however I have an awesome hubby who loves to surprise our children as much as I do. If time and creativity isn't for you, there are plenty of less time consuming ways to include 'Elf on the Shelf' as a tradition in your family. The first year I had no idea what I was in for and there were a few nights where it was hard work. Now, a few years on I have learnt some great tricks that I am happy to share!

*Have a plan for the whole month, have enough ideas to get you through - you will thank me for this later! If you are looking for some inspiration check out these Pinterest boards

https://www.pinterest.com/kara_lorgelly/buddy-our-very-own-elf-on-the-shelf/

https://www.pinterest.com/kara_lorgelly/elf-on-the-shelf/

*Create a storage spot for all of your Elf supplies and shop for supplies early. Having everything in once place makes the whole process easier

*Have a mix of easy and more time consuming set ups, if you've had a late night or an early morning start you don't want the Elf to hold you up

*Share ideas with friends and family - you can even share props if you'd like

*Have a camera on hand to capture the kid's expressions each day

*Watch as the magic of Christmas arrives at your home

Here are a few photos of our Elf Buddy's adventures last December! Happy Elfing!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the opening of Livvi's Place Casey in Boland Drive, Lyndhurst. The team from Touched by Olivia have worked tirelessly to create an amazing inclusive playspace where children of all abilities can play side by side. This is the first inclusive playspace in the South East and it is well worth the visit! There are accesible bathrooms (with change tables!) and BBQ facilities so you can certianly make a day of it.

For more information on the great work of this foundation please visit www.touchedbyolivia.com.au

Many of you who have had kinder aged children will be familiar with the concept of the kinder teddy....for those who haven't yet had the pleasure here's the deal!

Ollie is the kinder teddy for our little guy Charlie's kinder group. Each child in the group gets a chance to take him home for a weekend and when they return to kinder they get to share their experiences with their friends. You can take photos, do drawings etc and then add them to Ollie's diary to share with the other children.

Now Charlie has been hanging out for his turn with Ollie. Each Thursday afternoon he was a little dissapointed that his name wasn't pulled out of the "Ollie jar'. He was SO excited when he rang me to tell me he had Ollie for the weekend. Inside I was shattered. Honestly. I have seen some of the other children's adventures and I knew that this was one of the worst weekends we could have him! The studio was fully booked for out Father's Day mini sessions, and I knew I'd just want to collapse on the couch at the end of the day. The weekend before we'd had a great time away to Ballarat for Maddie's dancing and we have another few big weekends coming up - especially this weekend with some family birthdays - Happy Birthday to my lovely Sister-in-law Kate and a huge happy 18th to our nephew Ryan! I made sure that no matter what Charlie did on the weekend someone took phoots just so that we could have something to put into his book.

Then the lightbulb moment....no visit to our house is complete without a photo shoot! A vintage style camping shoot had been on my bucket list for a while, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do but had just never got around to it. This was the perfect opportunity! Luckily my ever supportive husband jumped on board, I put out a call out on a local Facebook page for some tree stumps and taa-daa....One super cute themed shoot for our little guy and his friend Ollie!

I love bringing ideas like this to life and I am always open to suggestions for your family shoots and as many of you know from time to time we offer themed mini session days so I'd love to hear from you if there is something in particular you'd like to see!

Kara

Just a little word

As many of you know we have recently returned from a road trip to Queensland and back. For me it was a time to step back from my business for a little while and reconnect with my family.

Just before we left I was watching some workshop videos and there was one line that resonated with me, so much so that it was on replay in my head during the long stretches of road we were travelling....as women we need to exist in photos.

It really hit home, as much as I love being behind the camera capturing memories for you guys to treasure I hadn't been great at existing in photos with my own family. We have thousands of photos of our children, hubby and kids but very few with me. Exist in photos.

How often do you hide from the camera? When was the last time you had photos with your loved ones? So with this in mind I took every opportunity to step in front of the camera during our holiday.

So, my little piece of advice for anyone hesitating about booking their own family portraits, - do it now, do it for your children, your grandchildren and your great grandchildren. They won't see the imperfections, they will see their Mum, the woman they love. Print your photos, be proud of them. Don't wait until you are perfect - you already are! We can all have photos to prove that we were here, we were together and we were happy

Valentine's Day

By now many of you will have already seen these super cute photos of our little man Charlie (4yo) that we shared on Valentine's Day. But there was more to the story than just a couple of cute photos!

I had so many comments about how cute and gorgous he is BUT I wanted to show you what really happens behind the scenes! The entire shoot lasted 13 minutes and cost me 6 banana lollies and a little bit of my sanity! Photographing your own children is SO much harder than photographing others. This little guy knows all of my tricks! So, here are a few of the out takes from the shoot for you to have a chuckle over!

Christian's Baptism

January 18th, 2015

I have had the absolute pleasure of photographing many of Christian's milestones already - from a maternity session with Mum and Dad, to his newborn session and first Christmas - so when Christian's Mum asked me to photograph Christian's Baptism I jumped at the chance! This is also the same church Kirsty and Nick were married in so we took the opportunity to recreate a couple of their favourite wedding images on the day too. Thanks Kirsty and NIck for choosing me to capture all these memories for you.

Venue: St Catherine's Greek Orthodox Church, East Malvern

Scottish Fling Festival

Last year I was thrilled when the Melbourne Immigration Museum selected some of my images for use in promoting their Scottish Fling Festival as past of their Scots Wha Hae exhibition. It was really exciting to see my work pop up on social media and then seeing it hanging in the museum. A very special thanks to the awesome dancers from Glenbrae Celtic Dancers who appear in my images!

Jill's Family

A couple of weeks ago I headed to Edithvale Beach to photograph this lovely family. We had a lovely afternoon, thanks Jill for choosing me to capture these memories for you.

Ivell Family

I met up with the gorgeous Miss Ava and her parents at the National Rhododendron Gardens for some family portraits. I've has the chance to photograph Ava a couple of times over the past couple of years but it was fantastic to finally have the whole family together for a session!

Suzie

I had the absolute pleasure of catching up with our gorgeous friend Suzie at the Fitzroy Gardens a couple of weeks ago. Although our lives have taken us in different directions I love that we have stayed in touch - thank goodness for Facebook, it just makes it so easy! Believe it or not but this is Suzie's third bub - she looks incredible! I am looking forward to meeting her little one in the coming weeks. Thanks Suzie for making the trip to Melbourne and giving me the chance to capture this moment for you.

Summer Sunsets

I LOVE location sessions! Especially when they are held at the perfect time of day (about an hour before sunset). Gorgeous soft golden light makes for stunning photos. For some families when I reccomend the evening for a shoot they cringe, it is dinner time/bedtime for young ones. But really, one night with a little planing to have some beautiful memories...for me it was worth it! I called of the services of my Mum to come along with us as my hubby was working and I needed an extra pair of eyes on our 4yo son while we were near the water. We planned a picnic dinner and headed off. With full tummies and a couple of treats the kids were happy to oblige for some photos - we planned this shoot for some Australia Day photos, these shots were a bonus!

Being a photographer and a Mum I know how much effort goes into getting your family organised for a portrait session. My own two children suffer from PCS (Photographer's Child Syndrom), they have had so many photo shoots our eldest groans when I suggest another! My children know all of my tricks - ALL OF THEM. Some days I just give up, other days I offer a bribe. Yes, I know I'm a bad mum! I spend my days creating incredible memories for other families and there are times when I just would love to create something beautiful for our family. Children grow so fast, I know everyone says it but it is true. When did my little girl grow into this gorgeous young woman?

Maddison - 14 years

Grantville VIC

Welcome to our brand new website! It has been over 4 years since I opened Kara Lorgelly Photogrpahy and I am thrilled that we now have our website up and running. Over the next few weeks I will be blogging some of my favourite sessions, weddings, moments and locations to share with you all.

If you have any queries at all please just let me know!