I’ve just returned from a short break with family which included visiting my three-day-old niece in Gloucestershire, the daughter of my sister Kirsty. She is yet to be named, but since her grandma was visiting from Australia, there were some official portraits taken with daddy Blair and big sister Matilda Rose. I especially love the photographs of Matilda and the new arrival because my earliest memories were of meeting Kirsty, who is 3.5 years younger, wrapped in a similar cotton baby blanket when she arrived home from hospital.






I’ve been in a nursery for the past two days, photographing about 30 children. One of the two-year-olds looked at me yesterday and commented that I had big boobs and she had little ones. I explained that I was a “big woman”, hence the “big boobs”. She then concluded that she was a little woman to match hers – and that was that. Actually, it was flattering that she was comparing us – she has the looks of Kirstie Allsopp and is a natural fashionista, wearing a LBD with long brown socks in the morning, and then later outside a deep red fur-trimmed coat with purple witch’s hat.
Later in the day, the pre-schoolers were sitting at a table, passing around a dinosaur toy before hearing a dinosaur story. They were encouraged to feel its softness and give it a hug before the story started, then asked what name it should have. Instantly, one of them answered “Linda”, as if all dinosaurs were called that. I guess that was that too. Perhaps they could be asked for the answer to life, the universe and everything – they’d probably have better answers than I ever do.

I love it when parents have their children photographed regularly. It means that when their children are grown up, they’ll have a full record of them developing and eventually, those photographs will pass onto their family. One client, Aoifinn, booked me about two years ago for her two girls and their first session. We were going to use a park but found a cute cobbled lane instead. Now the girls have a baby sister and I’ve captured them at a birthday party and now at Magdalen College, Oxford, where Aoifinn has been studying. And if you’re wondering how a tiny girl barely able to walk manages to balance on a window sill, Aoifinn was crouching behind holding her up. I can’t wait for the next shoot.

