In December I received the brilliant news that I had 6 images in the finals of 2 categories for The Guild of Photographer’s Image of the Year - Baby and Toddler and Newborn photography.
The Guild’s 2022 awards ceremony was held on 4th February 2023 in Stoke-on-Trent - the evening celebrates the success of photographer’s from not just around the UK, but internationally also, across a wide variety of genres.
The Image of the Year in the different categories kicked off the evening for me - The judges had chosen their 10 favourite stand alone images in each categories back in December and at the awards they announced the runner up and winning image. Not only did one of my favourite images of the year win runner up in the Baby and Toddler category, but one of my newborn images also came runner up in the Newborn category.
The image of Amaya (left) was a follow on from a photograph from her newborn session - during lockdown I had to temporarily close my business, like parents up and down the country I had to homeschool my daughter and we ended up spending a lot of time at our allotment. The allotment became such a joyful break from the world around us - and whilst I could not grow my business, I could grow food and flowers. This lead to me commissioning my greenhouse prop and creating the images that combined both my favourite things. This has continued to develop my use of florals which has grown and become more refined. More recently I have been exploring the meanings of flowers and plants along side my newborn imagery. The newborn image of Aarika shows her sleeping, surrounded by shasta daisies - which mean: 'happiness', 'cheerfulness', 'friendship' and 'wholeness'.
During the past year I have been submitting images regularly, pushing myself to create beautiful photographs for my clients, and, with their permission, entering them into competition. For me this is a good way to obtain feedback from internationally recognised judges and find ways to improve the standard of my work.
In doing so I was creating a body of work that on Saturday night gained me the title of Newborn Photographer of the Year 2022 and Photographer of the Year 2022. I can honestly say that my jaw dropped when my name was called!
My goal is always to create the best possible for my clients, this will always be my aim - but to win a national title whilst doing this is just mind blowing to me.
The images from 2022 - all of which obtained a bronze or high award.
I am so excited to see what 2023 brings, I want to continue to develop my work with flowers, but most of all, I want to capture your precious babies and freeze time for you so you can remember always how teeny they once were.
I think it as fair to say it's been a long 16 weeks since I shut the doors to my studio. I am thrilled to be back open now. It has been a stressful time, trying to ensure the safety of my wonderful clients and my family too, BUT I would not open unless I felt I could keep you all safe. With that in mind, I want to share with you what I have done to reassure you that my safe is safe. Now, most of the following points I did anyway - I always use hand santiser during a session, outfits, wraps and fabrics have always been washed between sessions and I have always cleaned. This should be standard practice with all photographers. I am now, however, leaving a minimum of 24hours between sessions, this does mean I can book fewer sessions but it allows me to air the studio trying to give any germs less of a chance to be transmitted between clients. I will be wearing a mask throughout the session and I have face masks available for any clients who do not have their own. I will be asking that siblings are only present in the studio for their photographs - this is to minimise the time they spend in an enclosed space. Prior to all sessions I will need to confirm everyone has been well for the previous 72 hours. I will be taking my children's and my own temperature on a regular basis in order to comply with this. If you are a newborn client your session will be arranged between 14 and 21 days post birth, this is to allow a 14 day isolation from the hospital (this maybe changed depending on the hospital protocol). During your session I will be asking you to social distance as much as possible, sometimes, with older babies I do need some help reassuring your little one, in these situations I will move further away to allow you and your little one space. I have rearranged the studio to allow a bit more space between my shooting area and your seating space as well. With all these adjustments in place I feel the studio is as safe as it can possibly be, I am more than happy to discuss any points with you prior to your session to make sure we are all comfortable and I very, very much look forward to creating some beautiful images for you to cherish...Even if your little one is a little older than my usual newborn window - Little Asees just above came in at 3 months old for her session - we got some gorgeous sleepy shots, and some brilliant smiles too! It is safe to say I made a very similar face picking up my camera again!
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