We have family literally all around the world from Italy to New Zealand. A lot of our relatives only rarely see our kids, so there is no better Christmas present for them than a nice photo…

We have previously sent out snap shots we had taken ourselves, but the photos were never quite right. When one of the kids looked great, the other had her eyes half closed. When we finally had a shot where both of them looked good, there was always something wrong with the background.

It is so hard to take good photos of kids, so this year we decided to bring in a professional. I was very skeptical as I’m still a bit traumatized by the professional photographer who used to come and photograph me at school when I was a kid…. it always looked so staged, not the mention it was so embarrassing to pose for the camera with my gap tooth grin, while the whole school was watching!

Sarah Gardan is an Australian who has settled in Paris with her husband and kids. I met her a couple of months ago when Esther, Michela and Courtney were in town and we needed someone to take photos of the four of us together. They turned out great, so I asked her to come along and take some shots of my two little ladies.

Having Sarah around was a completely different experience to the photographers of old. She came round to our house and spent a couple of hours with us while the girls played around in the living room. At the end of the session they were such firm friends that my almost 3-year-old invited Sarah to come to her birthday party! It makes such a difference to the photos if the kids are relaxed and seem to be enjoying themselves!

The results are beautiful (but obviously I would say that because they are my kids), and I cannot wait to start sending them out….

- Emilie

P.S. It is maybe worth mentioning that while Sarah is based in Paris, she travels around Europe quite a lot and is more than willing to set up a photo session while visiting….