Newborn session with Teodoro

What a gorgeous little boy Teodoro is, aka Teddy. He came in for his newborn session with me in Wellington a couple of weeks ago. 

Teddy was such a good little sleeper for me! He was rather 'jumpy' though! He had a very strong startle reflex. But just by wrapping a simple, what we call in the newborn industry an 'egg wrap' around him, he was much calmer. He loved most of all being completely swaddled in a wrap, lovely toasty warm and cosy!! 

We stuck to mostly very natural posing for little Teddy. These simple images will never go out of fashion. I love these natural poses on white. 

I want your images to be timeless and on show for years to come! 

Here's a few of my favourite newborn photos of Teddy's newborn session. 

I look forward to perhaps meeting you sometime in the future for some photos of your special little one! 

Karen x

What happens when a cakes smash doesn't go to plan!

Dear little Milania-Reign is another of my newborn clients back to celebrate her first birthday. 

She had the most beautiful romper for the first portrait section of the cake smash session and she has the most adorable little curls to match. Such a cutie! Milania was all smiles and full of cuddles, even for me:) All was going well. All happy smiles and clapping for the camera..... 

Now I've experienced many reactions to the cake smash session from these little clients, not all of them always like the cake, most do but some have not been all that enamoured with the cake. I usually have a few little tricks and props that usually help them warm to the cake.

But whilst we were getting these adorable shots of the first portraits, suddenly little Milania became quiet and you could almost see the uncertainty wash down over her face - she suddenly decided she did not like my camera or my flash! UH-OH!!!

We took a break, played with her away from the light and got her dressed for the cake portion. But no, she really wasn't impressed! When this happens we try the wooden spoon, the bubbles come out early, but no! She really was not keen on me with my camera! 

I only book one session per day so if this happens, we can take as long as we need to make a little one feel comfortable. We all had a drink and I bought out the bucket of toys. I sat with the camera on my lap for a while to try and get her used to it being close to her. 

Milania loves the bath at home so we were keeping everything crossed for that. I began without the flash, just taking shots of her to allow her to get used to one thing at a time and thankfully it worked, all was well!  Yay a happy Milania once more - PHEW!!!

One thing that always makes me chuckle is the singing, dancing and funny noises and faces we do during a session to keep little ones happy and laughing.  

Myself, mummy and auntie Summer must have sang wind the bobbin up about 20 times for Milania! 

She had such a great time in the end and loved her bubbles and splash portion of the cake smash session. 

Karen x

Cute little cousins newborn photoshoot

We recently welcomed into the world a new member to our family. Beautiful little Matilda, my second grandchild. I will be doing a little blog post about her newborn photoshoot very soon, well she actually had a couple! (Perks of your mum being a newborn photographer)

My daughter's partner's brother and his partner also had their first born son arrive a week after Matilda, so of course we had to do a mini newborn session with the two of them together. 

Of course, the law of sod was at work, so when one baby was fast asleep, the other awake and then vice-versa. Still we managed to get some very cute shots of them wrapped up, snuggled next to each other. We also just about managed to get Matilda's big Sister to lie still for a few seconds to get one of her with her new baby sister and cousin (parents crouched down either side just out of shot for safety as two years old can be unpredictable)! 

Such sweet little images of them both. Here's a few of my favourites. 

How lovely to grow up with cousins so close in age. I have very fond memories of hanging out with our cousins on the weekends when we were growing up :) 

Karen x 

Newborn session for Harry

My first newborn photography session of 2018 was the adorable little Harry. He came to my home studio space in Wellington with his mum, dad and proud big brother. Mum wanted the focus to be on baby Harry so we didn't use any props for this session, just all about beautiful baby Harry and of course his big brother.

Here's some of my favourite images of his newborn session. 

I hope to meet some of you throughout 2018!

Karen x

Newborn photos for Poppy | Wellington, Somerset

Poppy came to visit me recently for her newborn photos with her mummy, daddy and very proud big sister. The bed prop seems to be a firm favourite for the sibling shots, it's one of my favourite props too, the resulting photos are so sweet. 

Poppy wasn't keen on the sleeping business, she was so unbelievably alert! I think she may have closed her eyes for about 5 minutes in the 3 hours Poppy's family were with me! 

Wide awake babies are obviously hard to pose, well, almost impossible unless wrapped! But wide awake portraits are just as beautiful, especially if I wait for that moment they look straight at my camera or when they pull a funny but cute face, or better still, I catch a smile ( okay it's wind but still it looks adorable!) 

Here's a few of my favourite images from Poppy's newborn photography session. 

I look forward to meeting you soon, 

Karen x 

Why do black and white images count as extra?

I'm a huge fan of black and white photography. I adore the timelessness of them. I especially love really punchy black and whites with lots of yummy contrast. Hopefully you do too and that's one of the reasons that you like the look of my work.

A lot of people use a nice easy button to convert an image to black and white, literally a seconds work. This is one way for sure to get a black and white image and absolutely nothing wrong with it whatsoever.

It's all a matter of taste.

My style and taste is for really powerful and punchy black and white images. 

Once I have retouched an image in colour, I then turn it black and white, but it doesn't stop there. I start working in photoshop on a technique known as dodging and burning. This is based on a traditional darkroom technique for regulating exposure on specific areas of a print. 

I work on the highlights and shadows and the overall contrast of each individual image to bring out dimension and shape.

Let me show you 3 examples.

Here is an image of a beautiful family that has just been turned to black and white by the click of the 'black and white' conversion button. Really lovely but to me it lacks that punch! It's all a bit 'just grey'.

And here is the finished image in the way I like to produce my black and white images. Hopefully you'll agree the latter is a more powerful image. 

Here's another of my photos, this time on a light backdrop. 

Again, the latter is much more of a pleasing image to me than the version above.

And lastly, one of my favourite examples of where spending some extra time in post production really makes a difference to my finished black and white images. 

Aaaahhhh that's better!! Beautiful baby stands out from a sea of grey. Same material that really benefits from a little extra work. 

I've heard it being asked before "why are some photographers black and white duplicate images counted as extras"? and this is why. Its not just a seconds worth of work, or just a click of a button. It's a piece of art! I hope you agree!! 

Karen x

Indie's Newborn Session at my home studio space in Wellington, Somerset.

I really do get to meet the most loveliest of families doing this job and of course having cuddles with these new precious little humans is just the best way to spend my days! 

I had the pleasure of meeting Indie's lovely mum and dad and big sister recently, they also bought along their four-legged family member to be included in some of the family shots. 

For this session they wanted lots of family shots, the bucket pose and the ever popular mini bed. I love the images from this session.

Here's a few of my favourite images from Indie's newborn session. 

I look forward to meeting you one day! 

Karen x

Tips for photographing your children on Christmas morning.

Having children makes Christmas magical again for us, there's no doubt about it. I love to see their little faces when they see those gifts under the tree that Father Christmas has left for them :) 

I've put together a few little ideas and tips for capturing those wonderful Christmas morning moments. 

1. Give them new Christmas PJ's the evening before, that way you can guarantee they'll look really cute and coordinated for the morning photos.  It's an idea to get a shot of them all sat on the sofa cuddled up together Christmas eve. Trying to get them to pose together on Christmas morning probably won't happen!  Ask them to show you their most excited faces!  And of course get yourself in a shot too. 

2. Make sure you are stood by the Christmas tree when they enter the room to capture their faces, you don't want to be behind them. 

3. Sounds obvious, but remove distractions. The clothes dying rack or the nappy changing bag don't add anything to a photo! 

4. Capture the details and tell a story. Photograph them checking to see if santa has eaten his mince pie, the crumbs on the table. Did you leave the flour footprints outside? Photograph your children checking. They will LOVE to see these images of their family Christmas traditions in years to come. 

5. Photograph a few from different perspectives, get low down on the ground, take some from above and some close ups.

6. If possible, use natural light in the morning for a few, flash from an iPhone or on camera flash can often give unsightly results, red eyes etc. Having them next to a window with soft light filtering through is perfect. Photography is all about the light! 

7. Us mums are often the ones taking all the photos, hand the phone/camera to someone and get in a few. Your children will want to see you in these photos when they are older. 

8. After you've captured the images you want, put away your camera and be in the moment :) And don't forget to PRINT THOSE IMAGES and get them into an album! 

Hope you all have a wonderful and magical Christmas,

Karen xx

Newborn Photography Session for Hendrix.

Oh how I love his name! And he's gorgeous to match! 

We decided on lots of natural and relaxed posing for baby Hendrix's session. We started on a grey blanket, keeping him on his back and side. We then moved on to the very natural poses on the white blanket. These are some of my all time favourite photos, just so simple and beautiful. We ended the session with a few Christmas inspired set-ups as we're so close to Christmas. He made the most adorable Christmas reindeer that I have ever seen! 

Here's some of my favourite photos from this session. 

Looking forward to catching some more memories for another family and sharing with you very soon!

Karen x 

Harley's cake Smash photo session | Wellington, Somerset.

Another newborn client back for his first birthday cake smash session recently. It was so lovely to see Harley and his lovely mummy and daddy again. 

Harley came with the most adorable little outfits, he reminded me of Prince George! If I had had a little boy I definitely would have gone for this style of clothing - so ridiculously cute! 

Here's a few of my favourites from his cake smash session.

I also do cake smash and splash photography sessions for two years olds.  

I look forward to meeting you one day with your little one! 

Karen x