This shoot was arranged as a special request by a friend of mine, to be done as a surprise for her daughter and son-in-law who shared a milestone birthday this year.   She wanted her grandchildren to be photographed, then to be able to hand over the code to their private online gallery at their party, something which the two kids were really excited about.   I jumped at the chance and arranged to meet up with them all as soon as it could be arranged.

P & A are such fantastic kids, it has to be said.  I’ve never laughed so much, or experienced kids laughing during a shoot as much as they did.  They seemed to really enjoy our little session, not only as they were stars for the day, but also because it obviously had such great meaning to them given its intent.  P was particularly keen on finding fame with the photo’s, asking me if I could get the images into any of the big glossy magazines….I said I could do better, and put her image on my publicity postcards and website, which she was more than happy with, thankfully!

The birthday has been and gone, and I’ve been told that the parents were really blown away with the photo’s, and the fact that their two children managed to keep it a secret for so long. I’m so pleased it all went to plan. Here are a few of my favourite shots from the session.

My first Summer Mini Sessions event at Threave Gardens was a great success.   I was initially concerned, having booked a day during the first week of the Summer holidays which traditionally rains cats and dogs!  To my delight, there wasn’t a rain cloud in sight….in fact, it was a little TOO sunny for my liking, but that is easily remedied with some nice shady spots, of which there were loads in Threave Gardens.

I decided to choose a couple of areas within a stone’s throw of each other for each family, to avoid us wasting valuable time walking from one to the other (even though it’s tempting in such a place!) so opted for a spot with some amazing looking orange and yellow flowers, as well as some nice wispy grass. I think these worked really well, and all of the families were not only so cooperative, but all so photogenic!

It’s been a few months since the event when I’m writing this post, and am so pleased that the families were all happy with their photo’s.  I’m looking forward to my next set of mini sessions in the Autumn now!

Here are a few of my favourite’s from the sessions.

Giles and I met up with these two siblings and their mum at Sandyhills beach, one early evening in July.  It was the most perfect setting, as not only did the kids have lots of fun but the colours were just amazing at this time of the day.  I was particularly impressed at the effort their mum made in what they were wearing, particularly the pink dress and fantastic straw hat worn by her daughter.

The two kids played in the sand, and I directed them into various positions, but the actual ‘poses’ came so naturally.  They were such great kids, who enjoyed nothing more than running around and jumping, something which Giles spent time capturing with his wide angle lens.  I think by the end we were all pretty worn out with all the running around, but we all had such good fun!

Hannah’s mum had approached me about doing a shoot for her daughter quite a few months prior to our session in June.  She wanted to give her a treat, the full works including her make up done, then onto a couple of hours with me.

We met up on the day at Pure Beauty, who did a great job on Hannah’s make up  which she seemed really pleased with.  It was then a quick change into her first outfit, then we went off to our first location together.  As it was a lovely sunny early evening, I wanted to find a spot with some shade initially, to get some nice and even light and different textures in the background.  There is a lane with lots of fantastic backdrops such as peeling painted doors and old brick walls just near to where we met up, so I took her there to go for a bit more of an edgy ‘editorial’ look.  She looked amazing, and I think she was really starting to feel like a model when she got into the swing of it.

After another quick outfit change, we were picked up by Giles and ventured out to new locations to follow the sun going down.  We shot along the river dee walk and on the bridge. We even drove out to a field full of cows to try and get a shot, but my fear of the beasts got the better of me and I didn’t manage to get what I was after, particularly when they all started charging towards us!  The shoot finally ended up at the iconic wrecked boat on Dee Walk, the colours of the rotting boat looking so fantastic next to Hannah’s final outfit change, a glamorous blue evening dress.

I really enjoyed this session with Hannah.  She is such a great girl, and I think she really enjoyed being a model for the day.  Here are a few of my favourite shots.