Lose Yourself in Love - Storytelling for Families - Manchester Family Photography
“When I think of you, it is with thoughts of butterflies and flowers. I did not know their names until you told me, like a precious secret, like this knowledge was the only true wealth, and how lucky that we could be rich together. Perhaps I would not know to love the world from the roots up, as you do, without your quiet enthusiasm for everything that grows.
It might seem a perilous undertaking of the spirit, to see what beauty is still alive in this world of smoke, and speed, and fear, but as I question if there is hope for us in the times to come, I remember you in your garden, smiling, and showing us that hope is everywhere if you know where to look.”
I don’t often blog or share my family photography. In the early days of my career, I was never 100% confident with it, never felt particularly creative when capturing children and pets, seeing it more as an exercise in pressing that shutter a thousand times and hoping for a small miracle of a few in-focus frames that the parents will cherish. I myself am not the most natural in front of the camera, especially with my family - there’s always an uncomfortable need to ‘perform’ in those rare moments where I’m on the opposite side of the lens. My smile is too wide, my laugh too loud, my wobbly bits too wobbly and my frustration at my daughter’s inability to just stand still for the camera is all-too-obvious. I recognise the gently gritted teeth by the parents of the children I’ve captured, the endless apologies and nerves. I never felt like I was able to truly ease into a family shoot and enjoy the process until relatively recently. The irony that this is where my photography journey began 12 years ago when I was working as a nanny and shooting my young charges is not lost on me.
I jumped head-first into wedding photography once I decided to take my business full-time in 2015. And for a good few years, that was what sustained me and fulfilled me - it still is. But as my daughter grew and our social circle expanded to include many other families with small children - as we eased into this vibrant, loving, generous community of families, I found mysef getting more and more requests for family shoots. At first it was just families we knew personally, children who have known me their whole lives but gradually, as I’ve been fortunate enough to experience in my career, word of mouth led to meeting new families and my travel radius expanding. And then my couples had babies and they’d call me to capture these new, exciting milestones. What started as an occasional sideline in the wedding off-season has become a legit and wondrous string to my bow.
Most extraordinarily, I was starting to ENJOY it. The energy of the kids was ALWAYS the best part but now, the more I shot, the more confident I became and the more I realised that these images didn’t have to always be perfect, studio-shiny tableaux but could mirror my wedding work in that they captured, above all, how it FELT. We went on an adventure, I heard about school and imaginary friends and was shown fairy doors and wildflowers and in the in-between, we found that incredible creativity that I never knew had a place in family photography. My mind, and my work, expanded exponentially.
When the weddings stopped in 2020, I got the call to keep my brain and camera busy with doorstep photos. This easing-in after letting my camera bag grow dusty for a few months took off in a way I could have never anticipated. On my initial weekend of doorstep sessions, I met dozens of beautiful new families and, as lockdown restrictions eased, they booked me in for full shoots and now have joined my growing roster of families who come back annually as their children grow.
I cannot express just how much I fall in love with your family when you book me and my camera to spend some time with you. I love the wildness and wonder, the chaos and the candour - I’ve learned to embrace the blur and the elements and I’m amazed & humbled every day by the loyalty of my clients and I cannot express just how much I cry when you send me snaps of your photo walls, filled with memories I’ve captured.
THIS is finding joy, THIS is losing myself in love - I’m always, above all, a storyteller. I want to be there for those most-precious moments of your lives.
Here are a few of my most recent sessions…
