Welcome to the world little one...

I first met up with Charlotte and Rob to take some photographs of their gorgeous family on their doorstep during the coronavirus lockdown. We then decided to do an impromptu photo session that celebrated Charlotte’s beautiful growing pregnancy bump, her eldest Alfie wanted to be involved so using paints he drew a rainbow on her bump. Rainbows signify many things in life and are especially important in the pregnancy and maternal world, to me they are a sign of hope, gratitude and peace. There is a quote that I love “The rainbow in your soul is born out of the storms in your world” – this was a very special and very loved pregnancy.

A couple of months later, I got a message with the wonderful news that baby Ronnie had arrived and would I like to come and photograph their family once more. Of course! I was delighted.

Coronavirus has rocked the entire world, it's been so important for me to ensure that I put the health and safety of others first and foremost and I have thought hard about how to ensure that I can keep to my promise. Before I arrived at their house, I prepared my camera bag and my covid bag – the camera bag wasn't too far from my usual, cameras, spare batteries, lenses that I knew would be suitable for the location I was photographing in and that would also allow me enough space to get further back and maintain the required social distance from my clients, and of course my trusty mini step ladder (i'm quite tall – but it's so handy having this to get different angles and adds height!). The covid bag had lots of alcohol hand sanitiser, disinfectant wipes, and a variety of new & unused face masks.

I turned up at their house around 10.30am with my face mask firmly in place, hands sanitised and ready to meet 4 day old Ronnie and his family. It was a perfect day for shooting indoors, lots of bright sunshine outside that would come flooding in through the windows inside and a nice time of day for everyone to be ready (as much as you can with a newborn!). Once inside, I had a quick chat with them and went through how I hoped the session would go (they'd also received my hints and tips guide on how to prepare beforehand which helped immensely!). I made it clear that due to covid I would not be able to hold or touch Ronnie at all, which meant it was important for me to be really clear with them about how I wanted them to pose and how to place Ronnie at various, safe, angles so that I could get the shots with him that I knew they'd love.

Once everyone was settled, we began. I like to let sessions flow as naturally as possible, allowing time to stop when needed if a baby is hungry or unsettled – it's important to me to ensure that everyone is as happy and as comfortable as possible. Charlotte was feeding Ronnie and once he was ready I asked her to take him to the window for cuddles, I took the opportunity to get some delicate closeups of his feet and hands ( I love details!) and also of just Charlotte and Ronnie together. Rob later joined us and I got them to stand together at the window, cuddling Ronnie and talking to each other. To get some different angles I used my step ladder and asked them to squeeze in close to one another, a sleepy Ronnie looked very comfy in between mummy and daddy.

Alfie and Iris were also close by and eager to join in with all the squishy cuddles with their new little brother, whilst Rob was sitting with Ronnie he encouraged Iris to come over and she planted a few adorable kisses on Ronnie's head before scampering off to play. Alfie then held Ronnie and enjoyed having some brotherly bonding time, holding him close – it really is so lovely to see older brothers and sisters bond with the newest member of a family. I asked Alfie if it was nice being a big brother again and got the loveliest smile from him with a big yes in response!

We stopped for a while so that Charlotte could change Ronnie's nappy and took the moment at the same time to do a quick outfit change, afterwards we went to their bedroom so that I could take a couple more photos of Charlotte and Rob together with Ronnie, snuggling in on the bed for comfort. When it was time to go downstairs again I spotted the moses basket and I suggested placing him in there. Ronnie wasn't so keen though and just wanted mummy so we waited a while and Charlotte decided to wrap him in a swaddle. It worked perfectly, Ronnie felt secure and was starting to drift off to sleep again. Charlotte placed him in the moses basket and I took more photos. Knowing he was settled, I asked Alfie and Iris to come and take a peek. Iris is still so little but the love for her new brother was clear to see, it was extremely cute seeing them both peer over the moses basket and place their hands gently on his tummy as he slept. What a lucky little boy he is.

We were almost finished, but there were a couple more images that we wanted to take, a nod to the fact that Ronnie was a beautiful rainbow boy, I asked Charlotte to set up a couple of wooden rainbows that they owned, I instructed her to place them near Ronnie who we had placed (under my instruction) in his swaddle in a basket that they owned.. and then we were done!

It was such a pleasure to photograph this family, and I wish them all the luck in the world. I hope this blog helped provide a bit more of an insight into how my indoor sessions work and even more so during everything happening with COVID. If you have any questions, please do get in touch!