Creative fine art newborn photography, newborn family photoshoot. Sudbury, Suffolk, child and baby photographer.

 This beautiful family came to visit me for a newborn photography session, sibling shots are always included and parent shots if required. I love this image, the girls are so proud and in love with their new baby sister. Sweet simple colours, gold tones. They really are golden girls. Headband by the talented KITTYS BOUTIQUE STYLED PROPS

I had been wanting to use this hat for ages. Most of my felted props come all the way now from America, even with the rubbish exchange rate at the moment, this lady can make anything! I often message her and run ideas past her, and she always comes up with something beyond my expectations! I obviously carry a fair amount of stock now bespoke and beautifully crafted creations, I can however have things made, if you would like something tailored for your shoot, let me know in plenty of time, as they take a little while to make and then travel across the Atlantic! If you'd like to check out some of this ladies awesome work and show her some love, this is her Facebook page PUDDY PAD DESIGNS

This golden shelf caught my eye, I love gold at the moment, and I love ornate beautiful things, this French inspired shelf, perfectly matches the beautiful golden headband from Kittys Boutique. I love styling and theming shoots. These images are from just one newborn session. A huge amount of work goes into editing and artwork, I've recently moved my pricing structure to slightly cheaper for the first couple of packages, in a day when everyone wants digital, and having hard drives fail lots (I seriously back up in triplicate, and have cloud storage too to protect my client images), it frightens me that a usb or cd will corrupt. It literally can take one little power surge and all that work is gone, so I'm moving to ensure my clients have at least one professionally printed product. Print your images everyone! Children don't sit gazing at Facebook to see themselves and there is a chance those images could vanish one day. Nothing fills a child with more self worth and pride than seeing a cherished photo in a frame or in an album.

 The next two gorgeous sets came from FAIRY TALE PHOTOGRAPHY PROPS another local to me, prop maker, making exquisite hats, and layers with beautiful yarns, all ethically sourced. Some of the items I have can be traced back to the animals they kindly came from. Whilst people may class newborn photography as expensive, running a newborn business creates jobs for many other businesses too, and when families love a certain style, and look, you can't create some things from a pound bargain from China on ebay. The scary thing for me is seeing some of the animal cruelty from some Countries, and so it's important to me that my brand encompasses not only sweet and gentle newborn snuggles, and safety, but supports animal welfare, and other trades.

 This gorgeous merino layer is seriously so soft, Fairy tale props created this gorgeous set. Honestly purple and gold is just so stunning, and this gorgeous little girl she is just so divine. As you can see, a newborn session can be as simple as your taste or actually create a vibrant, beautiful, fine art gallery of stunning images.

 The amazing Puddy Pad Designs - link above made this stunning unicorn hat, I wasn't sure it would be popular but it is! This stunning floral wood effect backdrop is exclusive to PROPS FOR TOGS
 Baby was posed on the beanbag for this shot and photoshopped in. If a baby is ever in a prop, a hand is always in place at all times or hovering to ensure baby will not fall out.

I frequently have families travel from Cambridge and London, to my home studio. The vast majority of my clients come from Essex and Suffolk. I get booked up months in advance, so it's worth getting in touch early to ensure I can fit you in.

Little Elves on the shelves, safe newborn photography with beautifully cute Christmas themes.

Believe it or not this photograph was two years in the making. As so frequently happens in my head, I envision a photograph, (there are some amazing ones to come as yet too) and then I won't do the shoot until it's come together in real life as it is in my head, I know there are countless Elf on the Shelf pictures, I wanted to put my own stamp on it and create something timeless and classical - that night time sitting up feeling of when you are a child and waiting for Santa to come. I know babies don't sit up waiting they are usually up most of the night anyway but you get the gist. I couldn't find the "right" shelf, and when I did, after 8 long hours at an auction it was finally time to put the pieces together. The wonderful Lianne at Fairy tale photography props, had already made me a larger sized Elf set for toddlers, but I particularly wanted a darker toned image hence me picking the green elfsuit, again as in all the things I use for my shoots, the suit is made of the most beautiful soft yarn. The teddy bear is a silver tag bear. And the tree I collected about 3 years ago. Something about the sparkle and glow from the lantern on the gold just worked so well. The backdrop is by the very awesome Props for Togs. And I think it all came together to match my vision. It may have seemed a bit odd in October making this image but what a timeless image for the parents of this gorgeous little girl.
Here are the before shots, I haven't edited these in any way at all, as I think it's good for people to see what they first looked like, how to be safe, and the transformation and magic that takes place in both Lightroom and Photoshop!

I didn't put the shelf under baby, the reasons being that unless it's screwed into the floor it could tip towards baby, my shelf is a beautifully vintage piece of Oak that has been turned into a shelf, I needed babies legs against something though for the look to work, so this is a baby bed that I use lots by a brilliant maker in Europe Pedzlem Malowane newborn and child props it's a solid bed that couldn't tip and gave me the shadowing as it was dark wood to blend into the shelf. The hardest bit was blending the bear as for some reason my select and mask is playing up in Photoshop since the last update and so this image actually ended up taking me over 5 hours to perfect until I was happy with it. I shot the tree, background and shelf separately without baby in the picture, as baby was laying on her back her little arm was resting on the floor and so it created the illusion she was holding the lantern up.

This is now one of my most requested images at Christmas. I do like to mix things up a bit and so will use something slightly differently, and have this outfit in a different colour too.

People often think newborn photography is expensive, but when you realise just how much work and expense goes into just one photograph to create that unique image that will wow your family for generations then maybe you start to realise why photographers do in fact charge a reasonable amount for their time and talent.

This is my series from last year and we had an older child being held in place he really wasn't high at all, and Mum had a good grip on him up against a wall. We transformed this cheeky little elf into a photograph with his sister, and the sharpie marker was photoshopped in afterwards, it's one of my favourite pictures from last year. 

Another Props for Togs background, I wasn't happy with my shelf last year, but it worked for this image.

So when you see these type of images where baby is perched, there is actually a hand in place holding baby in place and the magic is done afterwards. At no time should a baby ever be perched on something their safety should never be compromised. This Mad Hatter hat is by the awesomely talented Puddy Pad Designs - such a creative soul I love her work, the talent of all the makers I use is immense and helps bring that something special to my ideas. It really is a huge collaboration of minds that make shoots like this work. I certainly wouldn't have the patience to knit or felt or make wooden props.

 Just in case you can't get enough of the cuteness overload! Here are some more cheeky little Elves. Not all Elves like their hats!

This image the hand was photoshopped out holding this little one on.

And yes seriously this photo was this dark it was towards the end of the session and I just whipped this last shot off, no idea what I was going to do with it and the lighting wasn't great.  Next up to the blog will be my fairy sessions, and I'm equally as excited about them. They've been so magical for the children. 

I believe in magic, I see it all the time in the wonder and the faces of all the children that I photograph. I just love this time of year.