Moon Bailey Photography

Lifestyle Photography
Family photography has come along since I was a little girl. Dressed up and forbidden to consume food or beverages lest you soil your picture perfect outfit, bought especially for the occasion. Typical marble paint effect on the backdrop and studio lights reflecting off shiny faces, children arranged in unimaginative positions around their parents. You were told to relax but the surroundings give no assurances of that being remotely possible. Your Mother told you to sit still and stop fidgeting with your hair or your siblings. The results were stiff smiles and awkward poses, creating what I have termed as ‘conveyer belt photography’ because the process was repeated for every family every day. For decades, across the globe these formal family photographs were reproduced, lacking any sense of who the family behind the staged smiles truly were. Thankfully lifestyle photography emerged! Lifestyle photography is a style of portrait which aims to capture and document real-life events, situations, or milestones in an artistic manner and the art of the everyday. I would definitely classify myself as a peoples’ person but were it not for lifestyle photography I would have avoided portraits and pursued photojournalism or landscape photography instead. I have no doubt that there are those among my peers who continue to thrive and remain creative in a studio environment, I however would not. To that end having a mobile studio becomes invaluable. Mobile studio means that I come to your home and set up my backdrops, and if required studio lights. I rarely use lights or flash photography, not even for weddings or live stage performances. I prefer working with natural light and reflectors. Artificial light often creates unflattering reflections in portraits. Working with natural light also gives me the freedom to move around and capture candid portraits that translate into the most beautiful and honest images
I enjoy going to new places and often clients combine the traditional back dropped photos with natural outdoor shots at a nearby park, dam or beach and I find myself in these hidden little gems of locations! The change of scenery always inspires fresh ideas and helps insure that each shoot is unique. Location doesn’t only play its part in the background adding to the scene but in a much more direct way with regards to a family’s psyche. We are all more authentic in our own space, which makes capturing a true sense of the family as a unit and individual portraits that much easier.
All of my family shoots have been booked by the Mom and on the day she is the most stressed and as a mom I can relate to that anxiousness of wanting everything to run smoothly and as a Mom I know that is hopeful but unlikely that everything is going to according to plan. So on family shoots the most important person to relax and reassure is not the fussy toddler or the big burly rugby Dad who doesn’t understand why his wife wants a family shoot when Aunt Martha got perfectly good snaps at Christmas. The person who needs the most reassurance is the Mommy. If she lets go and trusts me and knows I’m relaxed with whatever the shoot is going to throw at me then she can relax. A ripple effect takes place because as the heart of the home the rest of the family take their emotional queues from her. Kids relax, Dad is now happy to do cartwheels in the garden because his. A wise husband knows a happy wife means a happy life.
My goal with all my work is delivering an end product that I’m proud of and my clients are happy with. Clients choosing the location means I’m a little closer to achieving artistic and vocational satisfaction. The next key is time, enough time for teenage wardrobe changes, the countless bathroom breaks for the Mom-to-be, backdrop swaps, baby’s feeds and nappy changes, time for the shy newly wed to calm her nerves before shooting boudoir photographs and all the other pesky time thieves that consume an hour. All photo shoots should be an enjoyable experience and not a race against the clock. So unless it’s a couple, with no wardrobe changes in one location all of my packages are two hours long and includes up to ten people.
The final ingredient to cooking up a good photo shoot is-YOU! Communication. is the heartbeat of any relationship and to make sure that all your expectations are met speak up be part of the creative process make the shoot your own. I want to deliver a great experience and images that you will treasure!

Keep Smiling
Moon