Gracie-Mae's Story

A Camera, a Flower Farm and a Bigger Dream

My journey began on our family dahlia farm with a visit from a photographer named Lottie. She had come to photograph the flowers for New Zealand Gardener magazine, and I spent the day watching her wander through the rows with her camera. She knelt beside flowers, searched for tiny details and seemed to find beauty everywhere she looked. I remember thinking, that looks like the best job in the world.

Soon afterwards I bought my first camera, a well-used second-hand one , and began teaching myself photography. The internet became my classroom and the dahlia fields became my studio. Every flower was different, every season brought something new, and before long I realised I wasn't just photographing flowers. I was telling the stories they held.

As my confidence grew, so did my business, Gracie-Mae Photography. I loved capturing the colours, textures and tiny moments that people often walk straight past, a bee covered in pollen, the first unfurling petals of a dahlia, or the quiet beauty of a garden in the early morning light.

Today, that journey has become part of something much bigger.

Together with my sisters, and with plenty of encouragement from Mum and Simon, we're building Moa Gardens, a place where gardens, photography, art, nature and family all come together. While I still love creating photographs that celebrate the natural world, I also love helping visitors discover the beauty that's often hiding in plain sight.

Because sometimes all it takes is slowing down... and looking a little closer.