Every good story
has a beginning.
Hannah and I met in our first year of High School.
Or so we thought.
As it turns out, our story had begun many years before either of us realised.
Long before we ever shared a classroom, our mums had crossed paths through their work in education. As little girls, our lives quietly brushed against one another without us even knowing. They had already begun weaving a story that, years later, would bring our families together too.
We only discovered those connections through conversations that uncovered little pieces of our past. It felt as though we were slowly finding chapters that had always belonged to us but had somehow gone unread.
Our high school years were filled with laughter, friendship and endless conversations about what the future might hold. We dreamed about becoming mums one day, about the families we hoped to raise, the kind of homes we longed to create, the crockery we dreamt of filling our kitchens with, and the kinda vacuum cleaners that would make life easier. We always joked we were two old ladies hidden in the teenage world!
Years later, life brought us together again, this time working side by side at a kindy. Somewhere between ordinary days, cups of tea and caring for our little people, our friendship quietly found its way home.
Then one day, Hannah told me she was expecting Dot and asked if I would capture the beginning of their story.
Neither of us could have known that one simple question would become the beginning of mine, too.
Looking back now, those first photos weren’t perfect. I remember thinking quietly to myself that I had no idea what I was doing. To say I felt out of my depth would be an understatement.
I was still learning. Still finding my feet. I wasn’t thinking beyond that one maternity session or where photography might one day take me.
I simply wanted to bottle a feeling, for this little family to hold as a keepsake.
The quiet anticipation of two people becoming parents for the very first time.
The excitement of meeting a tiny human that was already so deeply loved.
The fleeting moments that would one day become memories.
Somehow, without either of us realising it, those photos became the first pages of a story we would continue writing together.
As the years unfolded, Hannah kept inviting me back.
To celebrate milestones.
To welcome Dottie, George and Percy.
To wander through the paddocks, around the old stone home and into the quiet little corners that became woven into their family story.
One chapter after another.
There was something else happening too.
Everytime that little voice whispered I wasn’t good enough, Hannah quietly challenged it without ever meaning to.
She trusted me long before I had learned to trust myself.
So did her beautiful mum, Sal, whose quiet encouragement has meant more to me than she’ll ever know.
Neither of them set out to shape the path I would take.
They simply kept opening the door, welcoming me back and reminding me - through their trust - that what I was creating mattered.
Looking back now, I realise they weren’t just inviting me to photograph their family.
They were giving me the space to discover the storyteller I was becoming.
Wild Moments didn’t beging with a business plan or a logo.
It began with trust.
After all these years, I’m no longer sure where one story ends and another begins.
Today, Orchard Cottage is home to Hannah, Nath, Dottie, George and Percy.
A handful of wonderfully unruly chickens.
Beans.
And a life overflowing with love.
Now… let’s turn the page.
Waiting for you