Beatrix's tea and biscuits

I first met Victoria and Tim, about two years ago, few months before our babies were born, at an Anti Natal group.

Last May I was delighted to be invited to do a family shoot for them and their 1 year old daughter Beatrix in their very lovely home in Bramhall.

Beatrix, like my daughter, was a very busy girl and great fun to photograph.
She liked music and iPhones, playing tea parties, lots of clapping and revelled in pointing out any aeroplanes flying overhead.
To my amusement Bea knew and could point to all the parts of her face (my favourite sequence of images from this shoot!), so after totally wearing her out I promptly went home and insisted baby try to learn this great feat too!

Framed | I Heart Faces Photo Challenge

I've been working on next year's business plan and one of the things I want to start doing is entering some competitions. I think this is a great way for me to stretch myself and my creativity and also good for networking with other photographers worldwide.

The theme was 'FRAMED' and I thought this shot of 4 year old Cleo out and about in the frosty Welsh fields fitted the brief...

This photo was submitted to the I Heart Faces photo challenge – www.iheartfaces.com - hopefully the first of many. 

Chuffed to bits when Amy and Angie picked it as one of their favourites! Thanks so much! You can see their top 10 here and the rest of this shoot in the post below:

Welsh winter wonderland

This shoot was exciting! As a newish Mum I now rarely get to go places alone, so to get in the camper van and bomb off to Wales was a real treat, and considering Wales would normally be a camping, biking or surfing trip, the journey felt like I was sort of going on holiday. Good job it wasn't a camping trip though as at minus three degrees with the prettiest of haw-frost covering the countryside I sure was glad not to be sleeping over!

Olwen and I had arranged the photo shoot for herself and her three children to be timed to fit around her eldest son Bauer's hospital appointments. Such dramatic weather wasn't expected but we decided to go ahead and so wrapped up warm we set off for an adventure.

Herbie aged 5 - tree house, tattoo and retro toys

Herbie. When I got the call about this 5 year old's family shoot my first thought was - cool name! My first VW Beetle was called Herbie (due to it's ERB1 numberplate) and I still miss that bug!

Turned out to be one of my favourite type of shoots too, as we got to stay home during the Olympics and do lots of great things. I was just like being home when I was a kid. And there were plenty of flash backs to that era too, as Herbie's dad Hugh, had passed on some pretty tidy retro toys to his son, including a Flump and a mint Fisher Price garage circa 1970s (how I would love to get hold of one of those for Grace!).

So here's a peek at our day...

A great family day!

Top day today; starting over in Chorlton photographing a very bonnie 7 month old baby boy called Michael. I can't wait to share some of this lovely family photoshoot with you, but for now I felt compelled to post a few of my own family pics.

Andy and mini me mooched round Beech Road for a couple of hours while I 'worked' and to be honest it felt like anything but work as I was made to feel so welcome, I almost felt like a mate who had popped round for a drink and a chat!

After the shoot I caught up with Andy and our little un for some brunch at The Lead Station www.theleadstation.co.uk which was entertaining as there was a brief shower whilst we sat outside eating, which made it more like our kind of picnic (almost like being on holiday!).

Then on our way home we went for a walk and I took the opportunity to do a few shots of my fella and our little girl...

Shelley's twin bump!

I love it when I get booked for a bump, new born and 6 month shoot package as it means I get to follow a baby from the start which is ever so exciting and a real honour.
So I was delighted when Shelley and Dave called me up to document their story, doubly so, as they are expecting twins in May! See the shoot here...

1 year old Sausage... she's lovely!

Our baby is almost 1!

I've made a real effort to spend quality time with her and tried my hardest not to have a camera constantly stuck in her face documenting every breath!

With Mummy and Daddy both photographers she knows when she is being photographed and has a canny knack of sabotaging any attempt to catch her unawares.

The other day I caught her smearing those grubby little paws over my already pretty mucky windows. Fairly standard practice for any small person with sticky fingers. Then she took my clean top that was drying on a nearby radiator and started to try and clean the evidence away!

I grabbed my camera and snook outside to photograph her from the other side of the glass...