Progression SessionOnce again, I’d love to open my arms and welcome into the studio the Godsmark family. Over the last few years we have seen them on many occasions, from little Freddie growing to new life being born, and now it’s Archie’s time to grow too! We first met them when they came to visit me for a cake smash session for Freddie, they decided on the most amazing theme ever, the hungry caterpillar! I loved it! Here’s just a few images from his session a few years back. he has now been promoted to big brother. We last saw little Archie when he entered the world and came to have a newborn session with us. Being a Leicestershire newborn photographer this was such a lovely experience to have captured Freddie when he was young and now to welcome in his new brother and capture them both together. Of course, they both were Little Rock’s and smashed their sessions. As time has a habit of rushing by it soon became time for Archie to turn the big ONE! Where has that whole year gone?!? I often say one of the most important things is to capture the moments because they grow so quickly but it makes it even more so when the once newborn’s I captured now arrive for their cake smash!! If I feel that I’ve blinked and turned one, it must feel ten times faster for the family. Their little details always stay the same, but they just get bigger and bigger. There was no question with the before photos, we had to capture both the boys together to compare with how they have grown. And of course, with mummy and daddy too. Looking back to their family photo from Archie’s newborn session you just can’t believe how both boys have grown so much. They’re no longer baby’s but little toddlers soon to be men. Maybe not that fast but that is surely how it goes. The same as Freddie’s cake smash session their mummy and daddy rocked it when it came to the theme for Archie’s cake smash session and they chose Peter rabbit. The colours worked perfectly with having the plain backdrop but the pop of colour from the cake and bunting. It made for a lovely contrast and containing colour without being too busy. It’s always something I love to offer here at Bumps Baby Beyond and that is choice. We get all of our cakes from Dian's Cake Creations, she always amazes me with her designs! Whether it be choice of theme, colour or outfit. I want to ensure that you have every opportunity to make the sessions more personal to you and the decision is yours. After all the images will be pride of place in your home for years to come. Like with all my cake smash sessions I always offer the splash in the tub part at the end of the session. The main reason I do this is so that your little one is nice and clean and there are no worries about rushing home to bath them. When we have siblings come it’s always nice to involve them too. Freddie couldn’t resist when it came to the bath. It was so lovely to see them both happy and smiling just in their own little world of fun. If you'd like to book in for a Cake Smash session please get in touch.
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So I’ve been asked, how do I balance my work and family life? How do I run my own business as well as look after two under 5’s? How do I keep on top of my house whilst my partner works away 5 days a week?
You know what, I don’t know! We aren’t all perfect, there is no right or wrong way to live your life; it’s all about finding what works for yourself and your family. Finding a balance between work life and personal life can be a challenge for us all. If you have a job you love, it’s super easy to pour your heart, soul, and every waking hour into it. After all, sometimes it doesn’t feel like working. But this can be hard to turn off from, I find myself editing before the children go to school, taking images whilst they are at school and then more editing when they go to bed… Ive decided to make a tips and ways to manage both and start enjoying your day to day tasks and im going to take a leaf out of my own book and try to stick to them! So here it goes: 1. Log off your e-mail. That’s right, I said it. Phone on silent (and no, vibrate does not count as you’ll still find yourself checking it every time it buzzes!) This will help you maintain some focus, and it will remind your company that your attention is on them, as it should be. 2. Limit work talk with your partner. Create a time limit on the amount of job-related focus that you and your partner share at the end of every day. After all it is sometimes so easily done to get cut up in hours of conversation about what happened at work rather than a conversation about yourself. My partner works away Monday-Friday so at the weekends we are now having a NO WORK rule (except one weekend in every month when im allowing bookings). 3. Plan downtime intentionally. And stop cancelling or re-scheduling those plans! don't cancel on that night out with your friends, the meal out with your hubby or the play date with your kiddies because your 'too busy' stick to your plans and make time for the important things in life! 4. Minimizse social media I realise that Social media is part of our job in this day and age and is so important to our businesses. But it’s a time-suck. And it has a way of drawing you in and before you know it an hour has gone. So, schedule in your social media time and stick to it. Not only that but don’t allow social media to take over your time you have with the kids/partner. We spend enough time staring at a screen. 5. Take care of yourself. My new year’s resolution was to be more selfish… that’s right, to think of me. I’ve decided to schedule in some time for no work, no children, no responsibilities and focus on just little old me. Ive decided to join a Slimming World on a Monday and go to Yoga on a Wednesday. That’s two whole mornings every week without anything else to focus on. Yes, I realise you’ve heard it before, neglecting yourself does not make you a better worker, mother, spouse, friend, or volunteer. It just makes you tired, unwell, and cranky. And it’s hard to do anything well then. 6. Let Go of the Guilt My daughter is going to school this year, and my son is in year 2 btu child care is still needed when working late or when my partner has to stay on over the weekend. Rather than dwell on how you're not with your child, think about how your role in the company is benefitting the family. Perhaps you can afford certain classes or trips out for your children or you're able to put away savings for a holiday. "The most successful career mums have found ways to be efficient in both worlds—and that requires being able to come to terms with choices and focus on the priorities that are in the moment," Accept that there will be good and bad days. Yes nobody likes a show off who’s got their life together but in reality nobody is perfect. It is something that will help to de-stress you and prepare yourself for everyday. Just remember to push yourself to do these as it is easily said “I’ll do that later” or “it can wait”. Once you’ve learnt the art of organising everything life will seem to fall into place. A photographer I know does this extremely well, all with the help of her pet dog! Emily owns, Emily Frances Photography which specialise in newborn photography. Leicestershire Newborn Baby Photography - Baby ZachWell hello little one. Yet another little scrummy newborn has been born and come to see me at my newborn studio in whetstone Leicester. As a Leicestershire newborn photographer I offer newborn sessions to capture one of life’s most amazing milestones to any family. And that is becoming parents. This time we welcomed little Zach and my gosh, he was just so perfect and… well… perfect! He was born weighing 8lb 12.5oz and was 13 days old when he came to visit us. For his session we had already previously got an idea of the style and images that his mummy and daddy would like. We always do a pre consolation to ensure we capture everything little detail you'd like. The other reason I like to find out is so that parents have time to sit and browse the sample images at their leisure, not be rushed or feel they can’t say that they don’t like a particular pose. After all we are all different and some people love colour others love more neutral. I always like to make sure every session is exactly how clients wish for it to be. Anyhow, onto Zachs session. For the colour scheme it was kept fairly neutral. With using some of our favourite props from our bowl, which makes for a lovely natured look. To our little bed which Zach turned into an adorable teddy bear! We have tailor made outfits for all our newborns and this teddy outfit has to be one of my favourites! I mean how much more adorable can little Zach look?!? We also decided to use grey as our main colour. With both these it keeps things very neutral and can be put absolutely anyway. Most of my clients love to get the grandparents a little something and keeping the images neutral helps to ensure that it ties in with almost any decor. After all a purple image wouldn’t look right on a bright blue wall. It’s something I always ask and like to know so we have images that will suit the place you wish to put them. One of our favourite poses picked by parents is our beanbag pose, with a sleepy hat on. This ensures you can get a mixture of images and have some with the hat and without. And of course, as you can see from this close up image, more in detailed shot of Zach’s little rolls! If this blog is making you wonder about my newborn sessions and what I have to offer then head over to my investment page and feel free to contact me.
Newborn photography Leicester, Safety & TrainingAs a Newborn Photographer in Leicester, I strongly believe that safety is the number 1 priority in any business, but most important when working with precious little lives! I have undergone extensive training, my first workshop was in 2015, with Jillian Greenhill Photography from Abu Dhabi Dubai. Jillian came to the UK for our training and has a huge following of over 17,000 people! This was an amazing opportunity, and this is where all the magic happened. I’d never picked up a camera before this point and spent countless hours on YouTube, staying up till gone 3am whist looking after a baby and a toddler. But this is something I knew deep down id wanted to do, and when you want something enough you find a way to do it. I learnt so much on this course, lighting, styling, wrapping, posing and editing but most importantly safety. How to make sure we do everything in a safe manor. Please click here to read a blog I had written after the course. this course, I wouldn’t have started the business I have today! Following on from this, I decided to go on another workshop with a very close friend of mine, Ellie from Lux Photography. We travelled down to Blackpool where we spent countless hours with Rachel Vanoven from Indianapolis, America on another extensive workshop. Rachel has a huge following, of over 237,000 people! This workshop recapped everything I had learnt from Jillian and incorporated parent and family training to. It was again another amazing experience, and much was learnt from this. I believe you can never stop growing and leaning. Safety obviously comes first and is at the forefront of all work with newborns, we looked at handling baby safely, setting up the studio safely and safe posing of newborns. Due to already attending workshops, this was a more advanced posing where we concentrated on more complex composite poses, such as potato sac and the Froggy. This again is done as a composite where an assistant helps supports babies head, and then supports baby’s arms and we merge the images together in Photoshop after. We then fast forward to 2018, where a lot of exciting things are going to be happening for my business this year. We are refurbishing the studio at the end of march, revamping our products and creating new sessions. Im so excited to bring all of this to my clients! This is why I decided to go on another newborn course as I wanted to refine my poses and make sure everything was perfect for my clients. This time, I trained with Stacey Natar, in Cheshire. I wanted to focus on lighting in this workshop. We had some amazing models in and managed to get through everything I wanted to cover. As a newborn photographer in Leicester I learnt a lot from this training, I had a few ‘light bulb’ moments and have now changed the way I do my session’s. This was the most intensive workshop out of the three and I gained so much knowledge on how to really understand the babies and use a different concept of lighting. Im so honoured to have trained with three amazing teachers and can recommended them enough. I had the pleasure of meeting Karin at my first workshop with Jillian, she owns Peas in a Pod and is a newborn, baby and family photographer in Fremantle, Australia. Please see some of my work below
Leicestershire Cakesmash PhotographerAs a Cake Smash photographer in Leicester I have done many different types of sessions, over the last year I have had the opportunity to work with different animals and have even more of a surprise for you in the next coming months, keep your eyes peeled for that. Katy rang me to book her Cake Smash session with a specific idea in mind, she wanted to incorporate their family pet. This isn't something I normally do in our sessions due the deep studio cleans that have to follow but on this occasion her story was truly beautiful and I said yes. They do say a dogs your best friend and having one myself I do believe it. Although this cake smash session in my Leicester studio was different to others we still captured little Darcey as I do with every other session. We first started with some before images and her mummy picked out our lilac and gold romper for her to wear. For each session, I have specially designed outfits to suit everybody’s tastes. We work closely with suppliers to ensure we have a variety of outfits. Majority of our lovely outfits come from Pixey Dust Photography Props. On to the cake smashing time! We made sure we captured some images of Mr Woof on his own before bringing Darcey in and the cake out. For her theme her mummy decided she wanted to keep it all very natural and just add a little colour with the flowers on the cake. it’s really important to get the colour scheme right if your wish to display the images on a wall. After all bright pink doesn’t match with everything. My Giant Cup Cakes are from Dinas Cake Creations, she is truly amazing at what she creates for us. During the session I managed to create the perfect image of them looking at each other. Here’s a few sneak peaks from this part of the session. And of course Mr Woof joined in with the bathing too! To have images of them both together is something special to their mummy and daddy and this is always something to treasure. Whether it’s something little or something bigger it’s always a pleasure ensuring I capture the images that means most, not just with this session but with every session! Nanny also came to the session, after all this is her first grand child! She brought with her something very very important...her dads hat. Darcey rocked her great grandads hat in these images, as did Mr Woof. For more information on our Cake Smash sessions please click here.
Leicestershire Newborn Baby PhotographyWhy Book A Newborn Session in Leicester With |