The smile behind the lens - Tara Chiu shares her story

The Bega-based photographer moved to the Far South Coast from the Central Coast four years ago.

Within that time she's become embedded into the community, photographing moments that will be treasured by families for generations to come.

Tara said she and her husband Daniel had been instantly drawn to the Bega Valley when they visited some of Daniel's family in Brogo during the Easter long weekend in 2019.

"There's such a special feeling here that I haven't had anywhere else, we feel so at home and it's not just from the land but it's the people too."

"Daniel and I said we wished we could live this life and then we decided that if we sold everything we owned we could ... so we did."

The couple came down a month later and began looking at properties.

"We drove up Daisy Hill Road to check out a house because daisies happen to be my favourite flower and we thought we just had to see this place," Tara said.

"We'd barely gotten out of the car and we fell in love with the place."

"Lucky for us the beautiful people who owned it were happy to take the house off the market and wait for us to sell our house on the Central Coast."

Once the house was theirs, Daniel went down to set things up, while Tara finished up her photography business on the Central Coast.

Through word of mouth her love of portrait photography has spread right through the Bega Valley and beyond.

Best known for her preschool and newborn photos, Tara has also been recognised for her ethereal-like wedding portraits, winning gold in the Brides Choice Awards in 2021.

"I have my own studio at the house which I used for pretty much all my newborn shoots, it's a lovely little space that's air-conditioned and set up with all the props," she said.

"What's nice is over time I get to photograph those babies in preschool, which is what happened the other morning actually."

While most might know Tara's portrait work, not many will be familiar with her pictures that dip into a whole other genre of photography.

Nature photography.

"When Daniel bought me my first camera, I photographed nature first," she said.

"I did a couple of exhibitions with it, one in Balmain and one at the Botanic Gardens in Sydney."

"I'm obsessed with nature, always have been, so I have plenty of photos to share with everybody."

Tara said she was looking forward to display her nature photography in her latest business venture with Wattle and Hide in Bega, where she's joined five other female entrepreneurs in a collaborative business venture.

"It's such a beautiful space at the Wattle and Hide store and I'm really excited to showcase my nature photography because it's only ever been on my computer which is a waste," she said.

Tara said she was looking forward to balancing her work and home life with the new office space.

"When I'm here, that's when I'll be processing all my work that I have to do, talking to clients and customers."

"It's going to be good to have that balance because I love my work so much that it doesn't feel like work, so I'm constantly doing it but it would be good to just focus on my life at home too, planting vegetables and flowers, reading a book and so on."

Tara said there were many people she'd thank on her photography journey over the last 17 years, but the people she wanted to thank were her three sons and especially her husband.

"Daniel's always supported me in everything I've tried, crossing his fingers for me as I throw myself into it," she said.

"He loves seeing my passion for photography and does everything he can to make it easier for me to be able to do it."

With how busy her job could get, especially during the wedding seasons, Tara said she was grateful for the ways Daniel stepped up to help her, from gardening to cooking, cleaning and even building furniture for the home.

Tara said she was grateful to the people on the Far South Coast for welcoming her and her husband into the community and for getting behind her photography business.

"I want to say thanks to everyone that's allowed me to be there to capture their moments and I'm just so grateful to be able to do this because I don't think I'd be happy doing anything else."