{Lifestyle} Jessica & Harry at Cliveden

I love my job, and this shoot was one of those shoots that just brings it all home to me again.

I had the pleasure to photograph Jessica, Harry, Wendy and Stuart at Cliveden a few weeks ago, and we had an absolute blast! Brilliant weather, fantastic kids, good company and of course ICE CREAM!

Wendy and I have been discussing this shoot for a Very Long Time (over a year I think), but due to circumstances were only able to do it recently.
We went to Cliveden for the afternoon and explored everything that this fabulous venue has to offer. We wandered through the gardens and even played in the new woodland playground.

I was slightly confused when Stuart asked me how fast my camera was... but he soon explaned by saying " fast enough to capture flying children?" So I replied, let's have a go and see!"
Apparently one of Harry's favourite pastimes is to be thrown into the air before coming safely down to Daddy again, and he could do this all day. I positioned myself behind Stuart and left enough space above his head to make sure I captured all the action. Good thing really, because "Wow - that boy can fly!"
(The results are at the bottom of this post. Have a look.)

I want to thank Wendy and her family for a fantastic day out and I hope they love the photos as much as I do!

And without further ado...















The two images below are my ABSOLUTE favourites from the day!! They make me laugh out load everytime I see them.
What do you think? Leave me a comment!



{Lifestyle Photography Oxfordshire}

{Bump} The Adventurous Claire

A few weeks ago I photographed a very heavily pregnant Claire with just over a week to go before DUE-day. She was very relaxed and laid back and that was probably due to the fact that she's done it all before...

She has had 3 boys already (2 being twins) and guess what, the bump is another boy. I take my hat off to her, as I don't know how she does it. I only have one boy (and a girl) and he keeps me on my toes all the time.

I wanted to experiment with a couple of new ideas, so when I met Claire at a local toddler group I thought this was the perfect opportunity! I approached her and asked if she would consider having some maternity images done (and letting me experiment) in exchange for some photos. She jumped at the chance.

I think with Bump photos women tend to be divided into two camps:

"YES, I would quite like that" and they have maybe never thought about it

or "ABSOLUTELY NOT, I don't want a camera anywhere near me when I look like THIS!"

In both cases the reaction is very understandable. With my first pregnancy I loved being pregnant and I had a breeze. With my second (and last) he threw everything in the book at me and if somebody floated the idea of photos, I would have laughed at them. ;-)

Luckily Claire wanted some and here are just a couple from the day
(the rest were a bit too intimate to fit comfortably on this blog).

So what do you think? Would you, or did you have some done? Leave a comment and let me know...







This is my absolute favourite image from the day!! ;-)



{ Maternity and Baby Photographer Evesham }

{Married} - David & Claire

At the beginning of June I travelled down to Southampton to photograph David & Claire's wedding.

They wanted a fairly intimate, low key affair, as getting married was the most important part to them. The ceremony took place in the Southampton Registry Office with only 30 guests made up mostly of family and very close friends.

After the ceremony I took them away for 20 minutes to go and take some photos by the old Southampton City walls and in a derelict building adjacent to the walls (I'm not sure what it was, and I can't find any reference to it either).

The weather held out beautifully until very late in the afternoon and the rain only started when everybody was safely inside the Hedge End Social Club - where the reception was held.

I had a lovely day doing my first Southampton Wedding and felt honoured to have spent such a special day with David & Claire.

Here are a few of the images from the day.

PS: The last image is of my friends Mike and Leontyne and I want to say a special thanks to Mike for referring me to David (his brother) for their wedding ;-)

{Baby} Freya - a 3 month old Cutie!

A few weeks ago, on what's turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far, I went to photograph little Freya in Chalfont-St-Peter.

She has a gorgeous head of hair and enormous eyes and I think Dad will have to get a shotgun license for years to come because she's going to be a beauty!

We started off the shoot inside and was planning to go outside later. Dad had put a gazebo up in the garden to provide us with the necessary shade, but the best laid plans don't always work out as planned.
- As I said above it was a scorching hot day and the little munchkin just didn't cope very well with all that heat. It was her first experience of it after all.

So needless to say she soon got tired of all the handling and just wanted to chill out with Mum in front of the fan. We ventured outside a couple of times, but within a couple of minutes she made it absolutely clear that this was not where she wanted to be ;-)...

Who could blame her, I preferred it in front of the fan too!

She wanted lots of feeding and even tried to have a little nap, but the heat was just just too much for her and she couldn't settle down.

I still got some lovely images of Freya, Mum & Dad, and Mum wants to do some more photos at 6months and again before she turns 1, so there will be loads of other opportunities to go outside.

Here are a few of my favourites from the shoot...

My little Ryan at 2! (Not so little anymore now)

Two years ago today my youngest, Ryan, was born and believe me it does not feel like two years at all!!

A lot has happened in our lives over the last 2 years, most of which I am very happy with, but the time with my little "Chunky Boy" has gone too quickly.

He has a proper little personality now and he has recently discovered that he can be funny. I love that he is now independant and that he can do most things for himself, but I miss my little baby boy.

I loved our cuddles, kisses and closeness, and I treasured the time we had, just the two of us. I'm not saying it's all over now, because let's face it - You are a bit of a Mummy's Boy, and you do love your cuddles and kisses - it's just that I'm not cuddling my baby anymore, instead he's been replaced by a big boy.

Happy Birthday my big "Chunky Boy", Mamma loves you!

xxxxxxxxxx



Thanks to Nikki Hill for the image. (Yes even photographers let other photographers take photos of their children.) ;-)

Portraits of Joshua

This is part two of a post I did earlier in the week - Baby Gabriella.

Joshua is a lovely little boy and although he wasn't feeling very well on the day, he still played along very nicely and was absolutely wonderful with his baby sister.

He has the most beautiful big brown eyes, and I think he will be a real charmer when he gets a little older ;-).

I have also included a couple of images of Mum and Dad, so I hope you like them.

Let me know what you think.

Lx

Jake Dale - A lovely little boy!

On the 1st May I went round to Sophie & Jamie's House to take some pictures of little Jake.

I am always delighted to be asked to come and photograph "life after the wedding" when the couples start having children. It never seizes to amaze me to see the transformation from couple to family life.
(I did their wedding before my blogging days in 2007, but I will revisit their images and post some here soon.)

Little Jake was born in January 2009 and is now 16 months old and walking comfortably. Time to get some lovely photos to remember this special time.

He is a very inquisitive boy and certainly a cheeky monkey ;-). Sophie and I had to use all our persuasive powers to try and lure him away from the raised fishpond. It was at just the right height to dip your hands in and try to catch the startled fish, and to throw your metal cars into to see if they would float - (they didn't).

I had a lovely time with them on the day and it was also lovely to see both the grandmothers (and grandad) again at the viewing.

Here are a few of my favourites: