I take a photo of Mabel at least once a day, sometimes multiple times a day. Videos too, I don’t want to miss a single moment. Due to the nature of my job James and I have been lucky enough to have a couple of family shoots as well, I treasure those images more than anything in the world.
Becky who is Rock My’s Graphic designer extrodinaire (our super spiffy newsletter? that’s Becky) is going to share her thoughts on capturing yourselves as well as your littles on film. Please do share your thoughts and experiences in the comments box below.
Becky: To have a family is a beautiful thing and we try to capture all of those milestone moments in our little one’s lives. Since the moment Leo was born, there has been a camera shoved in his face. I’m talking a video at like 9 seconds old in your face!
For his first year I took a photo of him every day. I took a photo of him in the same spot every month so we could see how he’d grown and changed. I took copious amounts of him sleeping on his daddy’s chest because let’s be honest, that’s possibly the most beautiful sight in the whole world. He is all consuming, he is everything, the most important thing.
To sum up, there are thousands of photos of Leo. He is our world. But in all of these photos, his world is missing. Because his world is us. This fact didn’t dawn on me until he was 16 months old. His world consists of me, his Daddy and his favourite being on the whole planet; Sasha the dog. I looked through the thousands of photos and guess how many there were of the three of us? Three. Yep. Three. And not a single one of the four of us.
There was only one thing for it; to get our mugs captured by someone super special and grab some memories of us as a family unit before I blink and he’s turned 16 and wants to lock himself in his room.
Uk turned Montreal Photographer Steve Gerrard shot our wedding back in 2011. I’d never liked myself in photos until that day and so he was my first choice to capture our next phase of life. I think it’s important when doing a shoot like this to do something that captures you as a family, doing something you love, whether thats chilling on your sofa or eating around your dinner table or playing bowling and enjoying the arcade. For us, it had to be outdoors where we spend a lot of time with our furry friend. In this scenario you can really relax. You can really be you. Forget the camera is there and play and run and laugh.
I am overwhelmed by the results and I am SO glad we did it and although at times I wished we’d done it earlier, Leo is now at a stage where his personality can shine through. The pictures hold a million memories. He was really not well on the day and he wanted attention from me a lot but that is life. Even though he just wanted to cuddle me for 80% of the time he still smiled. He still gave that beautiful grin that melts my heart on a daily basis. I am so grateful that I have these to look back on when being a Mommy gets hard and to remind me how much he loves us and how happy we make him.
So as I said at the start, family is a beautiful thing but don’t forget that you are an integral part of that family too so get your face on camera. To your little one you are all consuming, you are everything, the most important thing.
Don’t forget that.
Aw this is just stunning – i love her words about how she captured her little man everyday but never the 4 of them. beautifully put!! So wonderful to see this 🙂
cannot wait to have my own brood!!!! just got to get this wedding out of the way 😉 xx
Ah Sundari, your wedding will be amazing! And thanks for the lovely comments. Maybe we’ll get to see your family portraits one day 🙂 x
Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. All of you! And so so true what you say. The only real pictures I have of me and the girls is from our shoots with a children’s photographer and I love them all. Probably too much and have very little wall space left in the house! xx
Very well put Becky. Your words touched my heart. X
We did actually have a proper family portrait of the three of us when She was about 4 months old. It was done in a studio setting, and although it’s technically a good photo, it’s not “us”. It says nothing about us as a family. You definitely had the right idea! (and of course it helps that your photographer takes truly amazing photos) x
Oh Becky these are so incredibly beautiful. Your heart must be brimming with pride at your little family.
I’m determined to make a conscious effort from now to take more photos of ALL of us so I’m ready for when the baby comes.
And this actually encourages me to have a family shoot – yours is so far removed from some the cheesy ones you see on American blogs!
You and your family are lovely Becky 🙂
Fern x
Firstly, I have to start by saying I’m a little bit in love with Becky anyway, not least because our connection begun during a difficult pregnancy with my daughter and Becky’s awesome talents, but mostly because I love how much Becky shows her love for Leo and joy of being a Mummy (even though it can be challenging). As a new (again) Mummy, I completely relate to, at times, overwhelming feelings of love for this little person.
I almost can’t believe the timing of this post as just this Saturday we had our family portraits taken by a lovely photographer. Aside from my wedding photos, I’ve never done anything like this at all.
I didn’t have any plans to have any portraits taken after the birth of my daughter. When I first had my son (nearly fourteen years ago) we didn’t have camera phones, all photos were taken on camera or throw away camera. However, after a traumatic birthing experience, followed by my daughter spending a brief period after birth in neo-natal, photos of my daughter almost became a medicine in my recovery and in helping me come to terms with the experience we had both been through. I have hundreds of photos of my daughter, but I wanted, and needed, something even more special in my quest to remember her every moment and replace the fears we had experienced in hospital.
I love my wedding photos, and was fortunate to have the photographer as a gift from my lovely in-laws, however they were more a traditional take on photography rather than eclectic. My friend had got married some months before me and her wedding photos were also stunning and a little ‘different’, so I contacted her photographer who happily agreed to capture my daughter, and us as a family of four.
I was apprehensive, my daughter is only seven weeks old, my husband does not like photos at the best of times, and my son, well he’s a hormonal, too cool, thirteen (nearly fourteen) year old. Our photographer was brilliant and she made all of us very relaxed and she had a fantastic photography vision in capturing us. Some photos were taken at home and then in a local English Heritage area. My daughter was very taken to being in front of the camera, and both my husband and son also flourished! The whole experience was good fun and there were some amazing shots taken of all of us – funky, different and moving! The session also provided some more personal moments for my husband and I that had certainly been lost in the chaos that having a new baby brings. Don’t think we’d looked at each other properly in a LONG time!
We have to wait a few weeks for the finished products, however, I already know they are pretty special. I can’t even express how much having these photos of my family and especially my daughter will mean to me personally. I’m so happy that I made that decision to have the portraits taken.
Emily, this is SO lovely! What a wonderful way to celebrate your happy and healthy little girly (and those important boys too). I’m so glad you enjoyed the experience and I will look forward to seeing some snaps on Instagram! Make sure you share them… you know I’m nosey like that! x
Excellent timing on this post! When my little boy was 5 weeks old I took him to a popular photography concession that you can find in many Mothercare outlets (not naming names here!) for some ‘free’ shots. Long story short, of course they weren’t free, I ended up being roped in and spent £100 on 6 hard copy photos. That was it. I was sold, hook, line and sinker. I had to wait 4 weeks for the photos to come through and when they did, I was gutted. The quality was appalling, the pictures weren’t lined up properly, and they hadn’t photoshopped out any of the (many) imperfections on their backgrounds. I went home and cried (bloody post-pregnancy hormones).
The next week I was chatting to other mums from our NCT class and in relaying this, recommended our wedding photographer as I know they do family portraits. Why hadn’t I thought of this before?! I knew they were amazing, and they weren’t actually any more expensive. I have booked in a session for next weekend, to include all 3 of us (and hopefully the cats too!) to capture us as a family. I think these memories are worth investing in, spending that little bit more money because the days go so quickly, and ultimately you can’t get them back. X x x
Here here Tallulah! I hope you enjoy every second of it and you can get your cats to cooperate 😉
Oh Becky, your little family is absolutely gorgeous x
What a beautiful little boy. This has inspired me to get some family pics with my 14-month old who is growing so fast!
You won’t regret it Abi! Do you feel like you blinked and he’s suddenly 14 months?! I don’t even understand how it flies by so quickly.
Gorgeous Becky!! I cant believe how much Leo has grown.
I was chatting with friends the other day about family shoots – you’ve summed up beautifully why it’s such a lovely thing to do.
We were also saying as time goes on / your family grows etc it’s the perfect chance to either capture the next chapter of your love story with your wedding photographer – or for some, to book some time with the photographer you always regretted not booking for the big day! xx
😉
Becky these pictures are absolutely gorgeous! (Leo is so flipping adorable!)
The only family shoots I have ever seen are stuffy studio portraits! These may be lovely for some, but they always creep me out slightly.
These outdoor pictures, however, are just so natural and fun – when I finally have a little family this is definitely something I’ll want to do.
xx
How very relevant… I’ve just been chatting with the incredibly talented Cara from Bluebird and the Bear about this very topic.
Being a keen photographer myself, just like Becky while I’ve no doubt my camera will be a permanent fixture in our imminent bundle’s face, I’d like some images of our new baby’s whole world, including us and Olive the dog. Cara’s unfussy, clean style is right up my street and I think she’d be just the person to capture the moments I’ll be too busy being a new Mum to grab myself.
Ooh these are just divine! They capture so much love, fun, character and life!!
We have a shoot paid for that we’re yet to book in since we’ve had baby no 3 but this has prompted me to get on with it. We had the most fun shoot a few christmasses ago with Rosie Hardy – she is amazing and I completely treasure those pictures of the 4 of us… but feel guilty not having any now we are 5.
What an adorable little boy you have … an incredibly beautiful family indeed!
Your little boy is so sweet, he makes my heart melt!
[…] It’s always a privilege to photograph our clients’ new families and to make photos that we know will only become more precious as the years go by. Becky even wrote a post all about it over on the Rock My Style blog. […]