Oh hey there! My name is Emme, (said like Emmie, Emmy, & Emmeee). I’m a Mama, a wife, a Perth photographer & a lover of sunshine, iced long blacks & family time.

This is my first ever blog post & I thought I should use to get to know each other a little better. And what better way to do that then by telling you about my week?! Buckle up, bestie, it’s been a friggin’ roller coaster ride over here.

So this week my gorgeous little 9 month old ball of joy that is my daughter tested positive to the spicy cough, which these days isn’t a huge deal (thank goodness for that!) BUT she was still pretty dang sick which was not fun to see. Not long after, I tested positive. Then I got my period. Then I got the worst mouth ulcer in the history of mankind. Okay maybe that’s a little dramatic but STILL! I have never had an ulcer like this bad boy. I’ve called him Travis & I am currently on antibiotics to try & make him go away.

So to recap: I’m sick, on my period, unable to eat or drink thanks to Travis, and my baby’s sick. Welp. As you can imagine, it’s been a week for me.

Why am I bothering telling you all of this? Because this is me & this is my crazy chaotic daily life. Wanna know what else happened this week?

I LAUNCHED MY WEBSITE BABYYYYY!!

That might not sound like a huge deal to you, but believe me. Websites do not just exist & mine was a looooong time coming!

Point is, that is how my entire photography business has been built so far. Amidst the chaos, during the naps, late into the night. And then in any other spare minutes I might get.

And guess what? As I sit here typing this out at 11:08pm on a Wednesday night while I wait for midnight to tick over so I can take my next antibiotic, I can’t help but think of all the times that I have been told starting a blog was a stupid idea. That no one would read it, that no one wants to hear what I have to say, that it’s a waste of my time. I love writing & a blog has been a dream of mine since I was a teenager.

But fear stopped me.

Fear of what everyone kept telling me, fear of failing, fear of embarrassing myself, fear of not knowing where to even start.

But here we are.

Here we are because I took baby steps. I followed entrepreneurs & photographers that I admired on instagram. I took online courses. I listened to podcasts. I googled anything & everything. I played with a camera. I wrote down as many of my thoughts as I could when I had the time.

For years. While I was at university studying a bunch of different things (none of which stuck), on breaks, while I was working any jobs that kept money coming in. I was always paying attention to little things that interested me. Little pieces of my dream.

I tell you all of that because it’s real life. It’s SO dang easy to jump on social media & see everyone succeeding & just feel like they have something that you don’t. But let me be your reminder that it’s not true.

You’ve got everything you need to get to where you wanna go. And you can do it in the chaos. But it won’t happen all at once.

The first wedding I ever shot was NINE years ago. I was 15 years old, I was shooting in JPEG & on auto & I had no idea what ‘editing photos’ meant. I literally cropped a couple of photos and called it a day (don’t look at me, that is the most embarrassing confession ever).

Skip forward to now & I’m second shooting a wedding tomorrow with an amazing Perth photographer who has been helping me learn & letting me tag along to get wedding experience & portfolio. I shoot in RAW & on manual, I know how to edit with lightroom & I’m proud of my work. Work that looks like this…

I still have a SUPER long way to go. But I can also see how far I’ve come.

Which means I know how far I can go. And I know it’ll be so worth it to not have to slug it away at 9-5 job with my kid in daycare just to try make ends meet. I know it’ll be worth it to be able to create my own hours & schedule. I know it’ll be worth it to be able to carve out extra family time, to love on my kid, to be present for my husband & to create a culture where family is the focus.

I guess what I’m trying to say is; hi. This is me. I’m a mess & my life is usually in some state of chaos. My daughter is learning to walk & trying to eat every piece of trash she finds, my husband is working an unhuman amount of hours & I live in a granny flat. My life is not all that glamorous. But it’s good. And it’s happy. And I’m kicking goals & hustling my booty off because I can see the future I want.

Maybe no one reads this. Or maybe someone does. If you are reading this then I want you to know something. You can do it too. You can ignore the voices telling you you can’t make it, you can tell comparison to beat it, you can get past the fear of failure. I believe in you 100000%. You know why?

Because that thing you want that you’ve been ignoring? The thing that makes you a little sad when you see someone else doing it because you wish it was you? The thing that you’ve been told before that you can’t do?

That’s the thing you were made for! And no one can bring to the world what YOU were MADE to bring to the world. So be bold. Realise that fear isn’t as scary as it seems & that failure is mandatory. Every time my baby girl falls down when she’s trying to walk she just giggles & then gets straight back up. Don’t be afraid to fall. Embrace it. Giggle about it. Find new ways to get back up. And go get ’em!