Oh hey there! My name is Emme! I am a wedding and couples photographer in Perth, WA. I love what I do and I just wanted to share a little of that with you! Let me tell you about one of my very first shoots with some of my favourite people!

Meet Austin & Meela! This shoot with these two is, and forever will be, one of my absolute favourites!! Why you ask? There are literally SO many reasons why & I can’t wait to dive into all those details in this post!

First though, let me tell you a little bit about some of my fav peeps! I’ve known these two for over 3 years now & watching them grow together in their relationship has truly been an honour. They met & grew their friendship at work where everyone could see that they had a bit of a thing for each other, but they didn’t rush into anything.

Between then & now there have been a couple of years of ‘it’s complicated-ness’, bumps in an unexpectedly windy little road, some gorgeous ups & I’m sure some less gorgeous downs. But through it all they are still here practically radiating love for each other (or at least they were on this day). The words ‘boyfriend’ and ‘girlfriend’ were first used in March three years ago & I’m pretty sure neither of them have looked back since!

When I first picked up a camera for real & knew I wanted to pursue this photography thing I was definitely still unsure of what direction I wanted to go in. I knew I had to start somewhere though & I just happened to know this super cool couple who I was sure wouldn’t mind humouring me for a couple of hours.

So we picked Lesmurdie Falls in the Perth hills at sunset because I knew that the views & the lighting would help give me half decent photos even if I did a bad job. Meela rocked up this cute little red moment for a dress & despite the fact that the industry trend these days is to go neutral, I just knew in my gut that these photos were going to turn out amazing!

And they did! We spent about an hour and a half exploring some of the cute & quiet spots at Lesmurdie Falls, mostly letting Austin lead the way so that any spiders hanging between trees would get to him first (disclaimer: it’s okay though, no humans or spiders ended up getting harmed in the making of these photos!)

I had come prepared with a bunch of cute couple-y prompts that I knew would get them interacting & moving around so that I could get cute action shots & moments of real emotion. But to be honest, I barely had to use my little list because I was basically just a third wheel on a date for these two! They would dance, kiss, dip, spin, hug, literally any cute action you could think of before I even got a chance to tell them to do anything!

Watching Austin and Meela connect and interact whether on their own or in response to my prompts and directions was something special all on its own. BUT THEN seeing how these real life moments turned out having been captured through a lens was something else entirely!

Being on this shoot was probably the first time that I decided I want to photograph couples all the time! Something about capturing these real life moments and finding ways to bring out the emotions that were felt just felt so sacred to me. It felt like giving Austin & Meela more than just photos. I felt like I was giving them specific moments frozen in time that they can revisit anytime they want. I felt like I was giving them memories to hold on to.

This being some of my earlier work, I can see it’s imperfections and how I could improve it. And yet I can’t help but absolutely love it!! The editing is super inconsistent, there’s some super harsh lighting and there’s even a crowd of tourists in some photos that I didn’t notice until I got around to editing.

But on that day and in each of these moments, I did the VERY best that I could with what I had. And I was so proud of myself for what I created!

Even though I can see that I have improved a ton since taking these photos, I continue to be SO DANG PROUD of them!

And I’ll tell you why.

Past me smashed it!! I prepared, I practiced, I poured my whole friggin’ heart into doing the very best job that I could & capturing a story through still images. And whether or not I could do a better job today, I did an AMAZING job that day! And if I hadn’t then I wouldn’t be able to do what I can do today.

Let this be your reminder that you can critique yourself while also being proud of what you achieved. Learn from the mistakes you may have made but also celebrate the wins, even if they’re imperfect.

No matter what you are doing, I am so sure that you are doing a great job!

If you read this far then thankyou so much for hanging out! And stay tuned for some more of my favourite sessions coming up!

And if you are looking for a couples photographer here in Perth to capture some special memories for the two of you then jump over to my main website and have a look! This particular gallery can be found right here: https://emmejae.com.au/galleries. If you want to see more of my work or you want to know more about working with me you can find me on insta @emmejaephotography or here at emmejae.com.au.

I’d love to meet you & maybe create something beautiful together!

Catch ya on the flip side, lovers.

Emme xx