Newborn Photography that will never go out of fashion.

I first discovered stylised newborn photography on pinterest about 7 years ago. I was so inspired and loved it all! The colours, the props, the poses, the cute little outfits, bonnets and headbands. I still do love most of it, but my tastes have certainly changed.

Over the time that I have been a newborn photographer my tastes have evolved. I've gone full circle and come back to preferring the stripped back pure beauty of just the newborn baby. I'm finding more and more of my clients are asking for this natural style.

I've seen a shift recently within the newborn photography industry towards the more natural and simple approach.  I do believe that it makes perfect sense. There is nothing in the photo that will date, it's just baby! These newborn photographs will be timeless, they will never ever date.

Fashions come and go with baby portraits, (some for the better). But one thing that will never go out of fashion is a beautiful fresh newborn baby laying naturally on a simple white blanket. This natural style of newborn photography is what makes my heart sing. A baby is everything that is pure, and I want my photography to encapsulate this.

The little details of each baby, the flakes on their feet, the teeny tiny toes and finger nails, a yawn as they fall asleep, and a stretch as they wake. These are the little details I want to capture during one of my newborn sessions, I want to capture the essence of your newborn child.

All of my newborn photography sessions will now begin with your baby on a white blanket with more of a lean towards natural poses, as nature intended. Followed by a few posed on some colour, and then the option of the black and white images with baby in arms and hands (another timeless option that will not date) or a simple prop or two if you'd prefer and of course the family and sibling shots. 

I look forward to meeting you with your baby sometime in the future in my little home studio space in Wellington, Somerset,

Karen x

New logo to match my new direction!

I first got my logo about 3 and a half years ago and although I love it and I still do, I did not really know then the direction I was going to go in back then. Was I even going to try to get into wedding photography or not (that will be a big fat no!!) 

I now know that I’ll be sticking to newborns, maternity and children. 

When I began on my photography journey, I was inspired by the dark, organic tones, all things rustic , lots of browns and dusky pinks. But although that was what I loved at the time, I’ve found my clients seldom go for those colours.  Mostly my newborn photography clients choose pastels and creams and fresh whites or the timeless black and whites.

I have  found over time that my logo/branding colours just weren’t matching the look of the majority of my work anymore.

I also love to add flowers and foliage to the sessions and the mum’s of baby girls (especially those that have already had a boy!) often love to add flowers to some of the images through a their session. 

I used to be passionate about all things flora.  I studied at Cannington college in horticulture many years ago & I worked in a specialist garden nursery before I started my photography business. I adore plants and flowers. I used to spend hours in my garden and greenhouse but alas, running my own business, I seldom have the time these days. So adding a little floral decoration to my set-ups, I get my gardening fix!!!! :D

I thought about just changing my logo to black but now knowing that 99% of the time it is you lovely ladies that search for the newborn photographer and make the contact, I’d like to pretty it up a bit!

So taking all of that into account, here is my new logo which I think will fit my branding and style perfectly!

My old logo hasn't been made totally redundant, it is being used on my fine art floral prints page, so I still get to appreciate it daily!! 

Karen x

Maternity Photography session for Mel

Mel came to me for her bump session a couple of weeks ago. Mel has been to my home based studio with her first born daughter for her newborn photography session, a Christmas mini session and her first birthday cake smash and on top of that, she also happens to be one of my daughters besties so I know her well :)

Mel is expecting baby number two and is keeping it a surprise for herself, partner and family. One of Mel's friends actually knows the sex and has this kept secret in an envelope!! I'm pretty impressed Mel's friend hasn't caved in and told her! 

For this session, Mel wasn't sure if she wanted to go for the nude/implied nude shots but after a little chat she felt comfortable to give it a go. These images aren't for everyone and there's no pressure to have them whatsoever, but they are truly beautiful to look back on. And of course, if you do want them, they can be for yours and your partners eyes only. I will not share these images if you do not want them public as I totally understand it is a very private thing for a lot of ladies. 

Here's a few of my favourites that I can share with you from Mel's maternity session. 

Looking forward to meeting your new baby Mel! Enjoy the rest of your pregnancy :)

Karen x

Newborn session with Teodoro

What a gorgeous little boy Teodoro is, aka Teddy. He came in for his newborn session with me in Wellington a couple of weeks ago. 

Teddy was such a good little sleeper for me! He was rather 'jumpy' though! He had a very strong startle reflex. But just by wrapping a simple, what we call in the newborn industry an 'egg wrap' around him, he was much calmer. He loved most of all being completely swaddled in a wrap, lovely toasty warm and cosy!! 

We stuck to mostly very natural posing for little Teddy. These simple images will never go out of fashion. I love these natural poses on white. 

I want your images to be timeless and on show for years to come! 

Here's a few of my favourite newborn photos of Teddy's newborn session. 

I look forward to perhaps meeting you sometime in the future for some photos of your special little one! 

Karen x

What happens when a cakes smash doesn't go to plan!

Dear little Milania-Reign is another of my newborn clients back to celebrate her first birthday. 

She had the most beautiful romper for the first portrait section of the cake smash session and she has the most adorable little curls to match. Such a cutie! Milania was all smiles and full of cuddles, even for me:) All was going well. All happy smiles and clapping for the camera..... 

Now I've experienced many reactions to the cake smash session from these little clients, not all of them always like the cake, most do but some have not been all that enamoured with the cake. I usually have a few little tricks and props that usually help them warm to the cake.

But whilst we were getting these adorable shots of the first portraits, suddenly little Milania became quiet and you could almost see the uncertainty wash down over her face - she suddenly decided she did not like my camera or my flash! UH-OH!!!

We took a break, played with her away from the light and got her dressed for the cake portion. But no, she really wasn't impressed! When this happens we try the wooden spoon, the bubbles come out early, but no! She really was not keen on me with my camera! 

I only book one session per day so if this happens, we can take as long as we need to make a little one feel comfortable. We all had a drink and I bought out the bucket of toys. I sat with the camera on my lap for a while to try and get her used to it being close to her. 

Milania loves the bath at home so we were keeping everything crossed for that. I began without the flash, just taking shots of her to allow her to get used to one thing at a time and thankfully it worked, all was well!  Yay a happy Milania once more - PHEW!!!

One thing that always makes me chuckle is the singing, dancing and funny noises and faces we do during a session to keep little ones happy and laughing.  

Myself, mummy and auntie Summer must have sang wind the bobbin up about 20 times for Milania! 

She had such a great time in the end and loved her bubbles and splash portion of the cake smash session. 

Karen x

Cute little cousins newborn photoshoot

We recently welcomed into the world a new member to our family. Beautiful little Matilda, my second grandchild. I will be doing a little blog post about her newborn photoshoot very soon, well she actually had a couple! (Perks of your mum being a newborn photographer)

My daughter's partner's brother and his partner also had their first born son arrive a week after Matilda, so of course we had to do a mini newborn session with the two of them together. 

Of course, the law of sod was at work, so when one baby was fast asleep, the other awake and then vice-versa. Still we managed to get some very cute shots of them wrapped up, snuggled next to each other. We also just about managed to get Matilda's big Sister to lie still for a few seconds to get one of her with her new baby sister and cousin (parents crouched down either side just out of shot for safety as two years old can be unpredictable)! 

Such sweet little images of them both. Here's a few of my favourites. 

How lovely to grow up with cousins so close in age. I have very fond memories of hanging out with our cousins on the weekends when we were growing up :) 

Karen x 

Newborn session for Harry

My first newborn photography session of 2018 was the adorable little Harry. He came to my home studio space in Wellington with his mum, dad and proud big brother. Mum wanted the focus to be on baby Harry so we didn't use any props for this session, just all about beautiful baby Harry and of course his big brother.

Here's some of my favourite images of his newborn session. 

I hope to meet some of you throughout 2018!

Karen x

Newborn photos for Poppy | Wellington, Somerset

Poppy came to visit me recently for her newborn photos with her mummy, daddy and very proud big sister. The bed prop seems to be a firm favourite for the sibling shots, it's one of my favourite props too, the resulting photos are so sweet. 

Poppy wasn't keen on the sleeping business, she was so unbelievably alert! I think she may have closed her eyes for about 5 minutes in the 3 hours Poppy's family were with me! 

Wide awake babies are obviously hard to pose, well, almost impossible unless wrapped! But wide awake portraits are just as beautiful, especially if I wait for that moment they look straight at my camera or when they pull a funny but cute face, or better still, I catch a smile ( okay it's wind but still it looks adorable!) 

Here's a few of my favourite images from Poppy's newborn photography session. 

I look forward to meeting you soon, 

Karen x 

Why do black and white images count as extra?

I'm a huge fan of black and white photography. I adore the timelessness of them. I especially love really punchy black and whites with lots of yummy contrast. Hopefully you do too and that's one of the reasons that you like the look of my work.

A lot of people use a nice easy button to convert an image to black and white, literally a seconds work. This is one way for sure to get a black and white image and absolutely nothing wrong with it whatsoever.

It's all a matter of taste.

My style and taste is for really powerful and punchy black and white images. 

Once I have retouched an image in colour, I then turn it black and white, but it doesn't stop there. I start working in photoshop on a technique known as dodging and burning. This is based on a traditional darkroom technique for regulating exposure on specific areas of a print. 

I work on the highlights and shadows and the overall contrast of each individual image to bring out dimension and shape.

Let me show you 3 examples.

Here is an image of a beautiful family that has just been turned to black and white by the click of the 'black and white' conversion button. Really lovely but to me it lacks that punch! It's all a bit 'just grey'.

And here is the finished image in the way I like to produce my black and white images. Hopefully you'll agree the latter is a more powerful image. 

Here's another of my photos, this time on a light backdrop. 

Again, the latter is much more of a pleasing image to me than the version above.

And lastly, one of my favourite examples of where spending some extra time in post production really makes a difference to my finished black and white images. 

Aaaahhhh that's better!! Beautiful baby stands out from a sea of grey. Same material that really benefits from a little extra work. 

I've heard it being asked before "why are some photographers black and white duplicate images counted as extras"? and this is why. Its not just a seconds worth of work, or just a click of a button. It's a piece of art! I hope you agree!! 

Karen x

Indie's Newborn Session at my home studio space in Wellington, Somerset.

I really do get to meet the most loveliest of families doing this job and of course having cuddles with these new precious little humans is just the best way to spend my days! 

I had the pleasure of meeting Indie's lovely mum and dad and big sister recently, they also bought along their four-legged family member to be included in some of the family shots. 

For this session they wanted lots of family shots, the bucket pose and the ever popular mini bed. I love the images from this session.

Here's a few of my favourite images from Indie's newborn session. 

I look forward to meeting you one day! 

Karen x