Birth, baby and family photos that will melt your heart

Get ready to blown away. The winners of the Australian Professional Photography Awards were recently announced with portrait photographer Keren Dobia being crowned as Australia's top professional photographer for 2017.

More than 500 entrants, all of whom are Australia's top professional photographers, submitted a collective of almost 2,000 images to be judged for APPA.

Because we can never get enough of beautiful birth photos, plus gorgeous images of little babies and families, we've selected some of our favourite images that were entered.

Click through the gallery above to see the considerable accomplishments of these Australian photographers in 2017.