Women's Portrait Photography on the Tweed Coast

There's something I hear more than almost anything else in my job.

A woman gets in touch wanting portraits, personal branding photos, or just some proper photos of herself for once. And then, more often than not, she doesn't book. When I ask, or when it eventually comes out, it's some version of the same thing.

"Once I've lost a bit of weight."

"I don't need photos of me, honestly."

"When I feel more comfortable in myself."

So she waits. And while she waits, another year goes by. Another birthday. Another Christmas. She's still the one behind the camera, not in a single photo with her kids, not in a single photo of the business she built, no proof she was actually there living her own life.

Why this keeps happening

Somewhere along the way we decided that women are only allowed to be photographed, celebrated, seen, once they've shrunk themselves down to some size society approves of. I genuinely don't understand when being overweight, or ageing, or just being a normal human body, became a reason you're not worthy of being photographed. It happens. Bodies change. That doesn't make you less than.

I also get asked, fairly often, to edit things that were never a problem in the first place. Smooth this out. Take a few years off. Fix the hair from a bad hair day. And every time it stops me for a second, because since when did booking a photographer quietly turn into booking a photographer who hands you back a version of yourself that's been edited into someone else?

I'm not in that business. I photograph you. The actual skin, the actual hair, the actual laugh lines you've earned. That's not something to fix in editing. That's just you, being a person.

What I actually photograph

This is the direction I'm building Wonderland Photography toward: boudoir and women's empowerment portraits, personal branding and headshots for women in business, and newborn sessions, all from my studio in Banora Point. Families are always welcome in for newborn sessions, and I still open up select weekends through the year for extended family and family portraits, but the everyday focus here is women.

I want the laugh that's a bit too loud. The personality. The bits that are actually you. At 40, at 50, at 60. At whatever size you happen to be today, not the size you're aiming for one day.

You don't need to turn up as an improved version of yourself...you just need to turn up as you, be willing to be seen and I'll take it from there.