Anytime is a good time...

I'm often asked, when is a good time to have a portrait taken?  My answer is simple... anytime.  

As you know, I'm a firm believer in photographing, not just families, but photographing both women and men.  People have come to the conclusion that if you were to have portraits taken of yourself that you are considered vain... hmmm not the case AT ALL.  This actually infuriates me to no end.  To have a portrait taken of yourself or child is an experience you and they will remember for many many years to come.  We have portraits taken for many reasons... boost self esteem and gain confidence, to promote ourselves in our business, to give to our family members at Christmas on birthdays or the special days...like Mother's Day & Father's Day
OR we have our portrait taken just.because.we.want.to!  
You don't need a reason, but if you need justification, there are some good enough ones.  The photos that we take and have taken for us are our legacy.  I have the most beautiful portrait of my grandmother when she was younger... I love it so much, and it hangs in pride of place in my home.  The portrait that you have of yourself now is what your family will remember you by in many many years to come.  

I had only just realised there are not many photographs of myself as I am always behind the camera.  I started to question this... why not?  I couldn't answer it.  Well, I had plenty of excuses, but really, who was I kidding... they were not good enough!  And because I couldn't come up with a good enough answer, I made myself shoot a portrait session... of myself!  I did this for three reasons.  Firstly, I did this for me...(did you know its actually O.K. to do things for yourself and put yourself first for once?!)  I actually wanted to have a nice portrait of myself.  I haven't had a nice portrait taken of myself and I wanted one.  Secondly, I did this for my daughter, Tasma.  One day she will grow up and she will want to have a beautiful photo of her mother... and her father for that matter (I will get onto this later!)... up until then, I had nothing to give her.  But I do now.  Thirdly, I needed to show who I was for my business.  Whether we like it or not, people like to see who they will be dealing with.  In my case, being a portrait and wedding photographer, people like to see a friendly face.  I have been hiding behind my logo for years and it was time I put a face to Sally McCann - Photographer.

The photo session I have attached to this blog is of my cousin Cath and her daughter Claudia.  Cath came to me for couple of reasons... She came to me because Claudia was going on exchange to Paris over November/December.  Not only was this Claudia's first time overseas WITHOUT her parents, but her first time being away from her parents at Christmas.  Secondly, Cath knew that being 16 was an extremely special time in any young ladies life.  You're emotions fly at 17... you're almost an adult, but you're definitely not a child.  Cath wanted me to capture the beauty in her daughter so that she could hold onto this time forever.  I organised the delightful Megan from That Blonde Chick Makeup Artist to come and give them both beautiful hair and makeup for their session.  

CLICK BELOW the image of Claudia to view a small slideshow of their Mother/Daughter Session.

Hope I can take your portrait soon!

Big Love 

Sal xx

Point Roadknight Beach - Family Lifestyle Session

I put a post up on my two social media sites, Sally McCann Photography Facebook page and @smp_sallymccannphotography Instagram page stating that I had come to the decision that I was no longer going to photograph families outdoors, but with the intention on focusing on more studio portraits of children, families and more glamorous portraits for the everyday woman and man.  I asked my lovely social followers a question of which I received quite a good response from...

"If you were given a choice to have photos taken of your family - what would your preference be? Outdoor family lifestyle or indoor styled... what would work best for your family?"

I received about 30+ responses from both Facebook and Instagram pages all with pretty much the same answer... families, especially those with younger children, would be more likely to have an outdoor session where the photographer can capture more of a 'lifestyle feel' and not 'staged portraits.    Which after photographing this last lifestyle session - I totally get!  

I have an almost 2 year old little girl, and I know that at some point I'm going to want to have photos captured as a family and I will want them taken in an outdoors location.  I can take portraits of my daughter and our family, which I have successfully done myself, but I cannot capture a lifestyle session for my own family, it's impossible.

I'm saying it now crew - YOU WERE RIGHT AND I WAS WRONG!!!  So because of you, my followers, the beautiful people that keep me going, and keep supporting me through every post, I am going to continue on with capturing my families in a lifestyle setting.  

I will be creating packages for those that are interested... All packages will include a web-based stills video, like the one below, of your session that you will be able to share on Facebook with all of your friends and family.  It's not something that can be 'downloaded' at this stage, it's purely there for your enjoyment on social media.  

If you would like to finally make some memories with your family and more information on having a session, now is the time to enquire while the weather is still on our side!

Big love

Sal x

Danni & James - Torquay Wedding

It's been almost 12 months since I had the privilege of photographing the wedding of gorgeous couple Danni & James.  

I met Danni & James only a few months prior to their wedding.  Where possible, I encourage my couples to meet with me before they decide to...how should I say it... choose me to be their wedding photographer... It's not mandatory, but I believe it to be best for all.  Why?  because I believe your wedding day to be one of the most significant, momentous days of any couple's lives, it's a day that you literally share with - sometimes, and on this occasion - a complete stranger.  I didn't know Danni or James from a 'bar of soap' and what they knew of me was what I put out there on social media and maybe word-of-mouth from others... I didn't have my website up and running yet so the best option was to meet!  We met at my home.  My home is where I conduct most of my introductions and where I carry out my portrait photography.  My partner Wes was in the middle of cooking dinner - I will never forget it as he almost burnt the house down cooking bacon for our caesar salad!!  Smoke, everywhere.  Thankfully, James turned out to be a fireman so we were in good hands there!  I was a little embarrassed, but at the same time wasn't... this is me... welcome to my home!  I don't pretend to be someone I'm not.  I'm a family person.  I'm a mum first and photographer second.  So the times I can meet people are generally 'out of hours' times... times when people are usually having dinner or after dinner.  I invite people into my home so they can understand the person I am.

We talked for what seemed like ages... I felt a connection with them straight away.  It was like I had known them for years.  And thankfully that night, I received and email from Danni advising that it was a 'no brainer' for them to have me as their photographer.  I was thrilled.  Thrilled because I really felt that connection with both of them and that is so so important when you are photographing somebodies wedding day or taking a portrait for that matter.  It's one thing to like the way a person photographs a wedding - don't get me wrong - this is by far most important - but very close second is you need to ask yourself, do you have a connection with this person?  Can you share your most important day with them?  Do you trust them to capture your day the way you envisage?  and if you answer yes to these three questions, then I think you've found your photographer.  

Danni & James's wedding ceremony and reception was at Wyndham Resort on the Esplanade in Torquay, Victoria.  Their ceremony was outside in a private courtyard with Whites Beach as a backdrop, the beautiful Michelle Lothian was their Celebrant of which I thought was the perfect fit for James & Danni.  They were surrounded by so many of their close family and friends, their beautiful husky Santi even made an appearance with carers by her side from Checkmate Pet Minders.  

After the ceremony, we carried out their portrait session over at the famous Bells Beach, and as it turned out, the RipCurl Pro was on... and honestly, who would deny a bride and groom access to this area - nobody!  We shot some beautiful landscapes along the beach and had the perfect conditions for their portraits.  It wasn't the warmest of days, but Danni, James and their bridal party braved the conditions - they were real troopers!

I was really thrilled to be apart of this special day.  I hope you enjoy looking through a snippet of their gallery as their one year anniversary approaches very soon!  

Big Love

Sal x

The day is about you...

When it comes to wedding days I think no matter what anybody says to you, just remember... 
the day is about you - you being 'the couple' - and you decide to celebrate however you want to.  Sometimes I have found that people may not even become engaged because there is so much pressure out there to have a big elaborate wedding which can potentially cost upwards of 50k+ who wants to start off a marriage in debt just to keep up with the Jones's and keep everybody happy - I put my hand up - not me!    

I was contacted by a gorgeous couple in hope that I would be interested in capturing their extremely intimate wedding day.  Like I'm talking 20 guests if that... I didn't actually count them all.  They were a couple that had been together for YEARS and this was a formality that they had talked about for a while, but just hadn't done ... yet!  I jumped at the chance!  I worked out a personalised quote for them as their day was somewhat different to the 'normal' running of a wedding day.  Then it was locked in.  

This wedding took place on a Wednesday afternoon in late August in our beautiful city of Melbourne.  We did a cheeky little reveal at the couples apartment in South Yarra and then after a glass of bubbles went for a wonder down the street to the Royal Botanic Gardens to then have their portrait session.  Afterwards, we headed out to the Fitzroy Town Hall Hotel where the couple had their intimate ceremony, followed by drinks and a sit-down dinner.  It was perfect.  The ceremony was carried out by one of my favourite celebrants Jo Betz who is such a delight and breath of fresh air.. she really was the perfect fit!  

I loved everything about this day.  For me, weddings are about a celebration of the love that a couple have for one another.  It's a big decision to go down the track of keeping such a momentous occasion a small and intimate one, one that takes a lot of thought and, I believe, courage to do so.  I'm sure there will be friends and family members that find out the news of their marriage and may be a little disappointed that they weren't invited... and that's ok to a point... but just remember that you weren't invited because they just didn't want you there - that's not the case at all - you weren't invited because this couple kept true to themselves, what they wanted, what they could afford, and just decided to celebrate with their immediate family.  I take my hat off to couples that are strong enough to do this as there is so much pressure out there - as said earlier - to have the all big elaborate weddings.

Speaking from my own personal experience, my partner and I have been together for 5 years now and have a daughter also .  We are not married but, it's something we talk about... often enough.  For us, having gotten together at the age of 30, we have so many different circles of our own friends and so to then put all those together and then add family on top of that into a wedding - by gees our wedding would be circus!  It's quite overwhelming to think about it - and we are not even engaged....yet!  So where do you draw the line?  How do you invite this person and not this person?  Planning a guest list could possibly be one of the most stressful things you have to do in in preparation for your wedding day... for this couple, it was a no brainer - keep it simple and keep it just to family... so that's what they did and it was still the most memorable days that I'm sure they've had to date.  

I take my hat off to you Brie & Mike, it takes a lot of courage to go against what the 'norm' is, but you did and you did it so tastefully well.  I'm so thrilled that I was able to capture this special day for you.  

Big love to you both

Sal x

Cannot Wait to Meet You...

"Cannot wait to meet you" are the words that roll off every new parents lips waiting in anticipation to meet their first ever creation!  To meet their very own little person!  For some the anticipation is even greater if they have chosen not to find out the sex of the child... which is exactly what this 'mumma-to-be' and her hubby decided.  Only a few weeks away from finding out that exciting news of the baby you have been carrying around for the past 40 weeks (give or take) is boy or a girl!  Such an exciting feeling!  

I'll never forget when my sister and her husband fell pregnant with their first child and we asked if they were going to find out if they were having a boy of a girl.  My brother-in-law looked at me direct and said, "Sal, you don't get too many good surprises in life anymore, so I think we'll wait and see!"  And I couldn't have agreed with him any more.  That's not to say that I'm not ok with people that do find out - totally each to their own!  It's your little journey and you choose whichever path you would like to!  Either way, it's your little creation in there and sooner rather than later you are going to get to meet them!

Below you'll see how I carry out my pregnancy sessions.  I pretty much start my sessions very casually and then see how my soon-to-be-new-mum is feeling and if she wants to get a little more creative or "risqué" as Julie and laughed about.  Jules was an absolute delight to photograph.  She was pretty much up for anything.  She had done a bit of research prior to our session, so I knew exactly the style of photos she was hoping to create with me... and let me tell you this, we had so much fun creating this gorgeous portfolio of images!  

I can't encourage women enough to seriously think about having a portrait session of themselves whilst they are pregnant.  Becoming pregnant is really not as easy as what many people are led to believe.  Nowadays there are so many obstacles that both women and men may need to jump through in order of becoming pregnant... fertility issues, constant miscarriages, endometriosis just to name a few - it's not only stressful but it is really heartbreaking.  Pregnancy is something that should be embraced, there's a little baby in that belly of yours - love the way your body has changed throughout the past 40 weeks.

With all this being said, when it comes to sharing photos of these types of sessions on social media, I always seek permission from my clients.  Some are ok with it, some are not and that I can completely understand.  This style of photography is very personal for any woman, and if you want to keep these photos for your own personal collection, that is ok too.  I'm truly blessed that Julie was happy for me to write this blog and share her experience through the images with my followers. Pregnancy sessions are up there with one of my favourite portrait sessions to photograph.  

So please, if you are thinking about having some photos taken either drop me a line at through my contact page  or give me a buzz on my mobile 0406 426 077.  I would love to hear about your journey thus far and speak about a possible portrait session!

As always - Big love

Sal x

Timeless Family Portraits and added Lifestyle Session

When clients come to me, they sometimes find it very hard to decide on whether to have a studio portrait session, or and environmental session.  For this little family of four, they really wanted to have an environmental session as that what suited their family.  The girls love playing outside in the garden and mum and dad also thought it would be a little more relaxed, and that's what they're all about.  

I asked them if they would mind popping by my home studio to start our session off there as I'm trying to perfect my formal portraits of families, but more so of the individual child.  I have really been enjoying perfecting this style of photography - children's portraiture especially.  

After our in studio portrait session, we made our way to a little place that I like to call "The Secret Garden".  It's a beautiful garden maintained by the CoGG and very rarely so I see anyone in there. It's the perfect place to take family portraits in and environmental location without a whole bunch of onlookers.  Funnily enough, this gorgeous family knew all about "The Secret Garden", so although it wasn't much a surprise place to them, mum Emma was happy to go there as she used to take the girls there when they were a little younger to play and relax.  So in the end, this location was especially fitting for this young family.

Hope you enjoy this little collection.  I would love to hear from you, please leave any comments or get in touch via the Contact page.  

Big Love

Sal x

Gus Turns One! Cake Smash and all...

If you are a mum this little intro will be all too familiar... if becoming a mum or thinking about being a mum... wherever you are at in your life journey... if you think life is going fast now - let me tell you, life with a child goes by like you're running a 100 metre sprint 50 times a day!  Life without is perhaps like running a marathon and stopping for a long as you like at each drink station for a chat!    

When I was pregnant with my little Tasma (she's 18 months this week!) I would hear a lot from mums and dads alike that "time goes so fast when you have kids - make the most of it!" and every time I heard it I used to roll my eyes as if to say 'yeah yeah yeah, I've been told this 1000 times over!' Truth be told they were so right!  Kills me to say that!

From the minute a baby is born, life changes from being all about us, to all about the baby.  Time revolves around the Feed, Change Nappy, Feed, Sleep schedule.  Sleeps go from something like four sleeps during the day, to three, then to two and then to before you know it you're down to just one sleep a day... suddenly time has completely gotten away from you and child has just turned ONE!!!  Where did that time go?!  

Karlie & Johnny know all too well what it's like to experience the above!  Their little man Angus turned one last month and what better way from them to celebrate such a momentous occasion was to come and have Angus's portrait taken, along with some family portraits of all three and then finished off with a super fun 'Cake Smash'.  This was the first time I'd been asked to photograph a Cake Smash, and so I thought - why not, this could be really fun - and it was!  Little Gus was in heaven!  At first he was a little unsure as to what was supposed to happen, but then once he got a taste of getting his hands in that cake, there was no stopping him!

If you little munchkin is about to turn One and you have been thinking about having some family portraits taken to record this big milestone, please get in touch with me!  It is so much fun and I promise you, you will have a great selection of precious photos to choose from!

Big Love

Sal x

The Arrival of Little Jack

I'm a little bit behind with keeping everyone up-to-date with what's been happening with SMP, so over the next couple of weeks I hope to get you all updated!

A few months back I did a little pregnancy session for the gorgeous Simone from La De Da Events.  I was asked by Simone if I could come to her home and create some images along with Simone's signature style!  I  feel really privileged to be able to work alongside stylists as they always bring something new to the table for me to photograph.  If you haven't yet seen Simone's work, stop by her Facebook page and take a look.  She does an amazing job with children's birthday's, baby showers's, kitchen tea's, weddings... you name it.  She's brilliant!  

Below are a selection of images from our newborn photography session.  

If you're having a baby and would like this kind of style for your newborn photography, please let me know and I can organise Simone to come along to our shoot!

Mother & Daughter Session - A Bond Like No Other...

Any style of photography incorporating family gets me by the heart strings every time.  This mother and daughter combo was no exception!  Jessie has just turned 21 and is about 'leave the nest' - or may have already.  An only child to doting mother Fiona "Fi" you could imagine how hard it would have been for Fi to let her go... Jessie's interstate move prompted Fi to have some precious photos taken of her and her daughter before Jessie left.  A little keepsake.  What better time to do it?!  It was perfect, there were a few laughs, and few "ohhh mum" but it was all good fun, and by the end, you could see they were even more closer than ever.    

A lot of people seem to think that you need an excuse to have a portrait session with your loved ones... you don't!  Any time is a good time to have this done! 

I picked the title of this post because it rang very true to Fi and Jessie.  They do have a bond like no other.  Almost like sisters, it's almost scary!  As much as I could clearly see that Fi loves her daughter Jessie, I could also see that she knew it was time for Jessie to spread her wings, leave the nest, and see just how far she could fly!  I was always told when I would go travelling or when I moved out of home for the first time, to give it a go, and if I don't like it, I knew that I could always come home.  I believe this to be true for Jess and I wish her all the very best of luck for taking the next step into adulthood!

Big Love, Sal xx

Family of Three to become Family of Four

I feel so blessed to have have this beauty in front of my camera again!!!  This is Simone and gorgeous her daughter of 2.5 years, Layla!  I first started photographing Simone when she married her love Jonathan in Skenes Creek, 3 years ago... fast forward 10 months, and there I was photographing her baby bump... then a couple of months later came beautiful little Layla and an awesome newborn shoot! Fast forward again, 2.5 half years and here Simone is looking as beautiful as ever, ready to meet her second child in a couple of weeks time.  

Such a special time for any woman, whether it be your first, second, third or forth child... It's amazing how much the body changes and to think there is a little baby in that belly!  Amazing! I always get this warm fuzzy feeling when I get the opportunity to photograph a lady and her bump... it's such a huge milestone in any woman's life!  For some women it's not an easy task to fall pregnant nowadays, so when you do, take full advantage of how beautiful you look and what you have created :)

If you're thinking of having some pregnancy photos taken, please get in touch!  I'd love to hear from you! 

Big Love

Sal xx