I have been photographing births, bumps, and babies in Wellington for fifteen years. In that time I have knelt on more nursery floors than I can count, cried at more deliveries than I would admit publicly, and learned -- the hard way, mostly -- what actually works when you are trying to capture a newborn who will not stay asleep and a toddler who will not sit still.
First Light started as a blog. I kept getting the same questions from clients, from new photographers, from friends who had just had their first baby and wanted to know how to take a decent photo with the camera they got for Christmas. The answers were always the same: it depends on your light, your space, your baby. Not the studio in the YouTube tutorial. Your actual lounge, your actual window, your actual three-week-old.
The problem was that most of the photography advice online assumes you have a purpose-built studio, professional lighting, and a baby who cooperates on cue. It also assumes you live in California. If you are photographing a newborn in a south-facing Dunedin flat in July, that advice is not just unhelpful -- it is irrelevant.
So the blog became something more deliberate. A NZ-specific resource for the practical, emotional, and technical sides of photographing children from bump to birthday. I write about camera settings and I write about the emotional weight of photographing a difficult birth. I write about lighting in small state houses and I write about pricing your work fairly in the NZ market. Everything on this site comes from experience -- mine, and the collected wisdom of photographers I trust.
What This Site Is Not
First Light is not a photography business. I do not accept bookings through this site and I am not selling prints or packages. This is a teaching resource. My goal is to make you more capable with your camera -- whether that is a phone, a hand-me-down DSLR, or a new mirrorless body you are still figuring out.
I also want to be clear that this site is not medical advice. I write about newborn safety during photo sessions because it matters enormously, but I am a photographer, not a midwife or a paediatrician. If you have questions about your baby's health, talk to your lead maternity carer.
Why First Light
The name is literal. That first light of a newborn's life -- the first morning, the first window light falling across a bassinet, the first time you see your baby's face properly -- is what this whole site orbits around. Every guide I write comes back to that moment: how do you capture something that precious, that fleeting, with the tools and the space you actually have?
If you have a question about photographing your baby, your bump, or your toddler who has just discovered running, you are in the right place. Start with the guides or get in touch if there is something specific you want covered.