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...

Happy Birthday Isaac! (Hoping you get some Sellotape!)

As Isaac turns 1 today at 12.29am I felt I just had to share his family shoot from 2 months ago as I know that he has grown and changed already!

Isaac was my 1st crawler of 2012! And after the very stern weighing up that he gave me on my arrival he seemed to vow to not stop moving for a single moment of the shoot!

Mummy and Daddy had a few things that they were keen for me to capture... His cute feet! His very secret toothy pegs! His gorgeous eyes. Did we mention his very cute feet? His lovely nursery. His diddy feet, and toes and hands. His nakey babyness and his very charming smile!
(As an added bonus I even managed to catch a few tears - don't worry - those were for free!)

Harrys new born shoot

Introducing 4 week old Harry... such a calm, chilled out, knowing little chap with the most amazing blue eyes. He was so cute and cuddly looking in his blue and white sleep suit but I just LOVE the colourful stripy babygrow too! 

I was amazed at how tiny he seemed, probably just due to me spending so much time with my 9 month old daughter, who is already like a giant in comparison! Check out the shots of Harry's hands and feet next to his Mummy and Dad's, so dinky! Babies - they sure don't stay little for long!

Noah's Arc

Where do I start? I LOVE THIS SHOOT!

Johnny, Mel and Noah... what an ace family...
caring, brilliant fun, eco friendly, surfing, thoughtful, happy, air guitar wielding, honest, bike riding, lovin, vw driving, german speaking, long time mates.

On the day of the shoot the sky closed in as if Armageddon was upon us, but Noah's brilliant blue eyes light up every shot and maybe I'm bias, but I found it very difficult to know which images to share with you as I like them all!

The S's

It was only after I met Siouxsie (the Cat) that I realised Stuart, Sally and Sam were all S's... silly really, I should be familiar with these anomalies as my Mum, Susan, has sisters Sylvia, Sheila and Sandra (their two brothers got away without S's).

We first met Sally and Stuart at our NCT anti-natal class back in February this year when we were expecting our first baby, and they were expecting Sam.

The NCT class was an excellent way to meet other Mums and Dads to be and get some confidence regarding the unknown that at that time was fast approaching! Top tips such as the five S's (Swaddling, Stomach, Shhhh, Swinging and Sucking) to calm your baby were things that have seen us through the initial stages of Parenthood and are still useful now, 9 months on.

I was really excited to be asked to photograph Stuart and Sally's family and upon arriving at their house, they were as welcoming as their lovely warm farmhouse kitchen. Here's a few shots from their session...

You’re like Manchester

There's a hell of a lot to like about Liz + Ben and the same can be said of their gorgeous seven month old son Sid and very lovely doggy Bodey.

So it's with some sadness that I did their family photoshoot in the midst of them packing up to move away from Manchester to the other side of the Peaks. Having said that there was still time for a laugh and a few costume changes and a bowl of the best chilli I have ever had.

Impossible to sum this lot up so in the words of John Shuttleworth...

You’re like Manchester 

You’ve got Strangeways 

But you’ve got Styal too 

(And we'll miss you when you move away)

Izzy, Roo and her Grandparents too!

Life has flown by in a blur of nappies, burp cloths and night feeds...
Our baby girl has turned our world up side down in a good messy, manic, life affirming sort of way!

When I got asked to do a Family shoot for 10 month old Izzy I was a little stuck to know what to do with our bundle of breastfeeding joy as even after 5 months I hadn't really got round to trying her on a bottle!

So as luck would have it (on a number of levels) Izzy's family invited me to bring my baby to work! And on an even luckier stroke of fluke, my little helper entertained us for a while before falling asleep! Brilliant! if only she could be such low maintenance at home!

So here we have it, a few shots of the oh so cute Izzy, who despite teething managed to be an absolute star!

Introducing... big drum roll... my first blog post!

Here two of my favourite girls, playing me in.

I'm loving their stance, their concentration, the Hello Kitty sticker.

Cheers ladies.

You rock!