One of the things we were busy with was for the queen of my biggest vice Sarah Jane Chocolates. On a chilly but sunny Monday afternoon in mid-December, I visited Sarah and her lovely family for a pre-Christmas family photoshoot … oh, and some chocolates too!

As the sun was out, we took the opportunity and headed out into the garden, armed with camera, reflector and warm jackets. They were all very good about dropping the jackets for a few minutes at a time, whilst we captured some great family moments. Of course, coffee and chocolate was a must after all that, and I would be lying if I didn’t own up to the fact that I ate rather more than I should – but, oh goodness, how utterly divine! I would highly recommend sampling some for yourself, or even attending one of her Chocolate Making Workshops. I guarantee, you won’t be disappointed!

So, enough of that, let’s look at some of my favourite images from the shoot :

A special little hello goes out to the youngest of our models who both treated me to a Monkey Tree Hug to say goodbye. Total bless.

Here are a couple of my faves from the shoot:

Elizabeth, my friend, is just that person. And it is just that which makes this a rather special post for me. As many of our mutual friends and colleagues will know, Elizabeth, and her husband Mikey, have just had a baby – a gorgeous little baby called CJ, and I was so very pleased to have the opportunity to photograph them all last week, at their country retreat.

There’s little more to say, apart from the fact that they all look beautiful together – see for yourself…

This was the first time I had met the boys, but it wasn’t a problem – they were all full o’beans and warmed to the camera without hesitation. All in all, a really fun afternoon – despite the, ahem, tears (hey, boys?!)

Here is a selection of my favourites :

And a huge Thank You for my Easter Egg !!

So, these gorgeous identical twins are Annabelle and Olivia, and were my second summer shoot for Baby Surrey Magazine.

Quite a few more coming up, so stay tuned …

Thankfully, we were aided by one of the most gorgeous Saturday mornings that I have experienced in ages, with sun and warmth galore, allowing us to head into the sumptuous garden for some smashing shots.

So, here are my favourites, but presented to you in a very different way from normal – I am experimenting with a new format of presenting images and would be most pleased to hear what you think … there’ll be a few cosmetic changes to the blog soon, which I am quite excited about. More on that soon – for now, here are the images:

So, on to may favourites from the session:

We spent two hot, hot, hot days in Hof, north of Nürnberg, and right next to the Western most point of the Czech Republic. We were treated to great German hospitality by Bettina and Jan-Stefan of Kiddy, and two days of the ins and outs of Kiddy car seats – what Alana and I don’t know about friction coefficients is not worth knowing!! During those two days we took lots of photographs and tried to get a real idea of the family unit behind Kiddy. You can read all about it in the latest magazines, but for now, here are my favourite images from the trip:

Claire runs the very successful business Plantpassion, and is one of the most knowledgeable and passionate plant experts I know, and her blog is regularly updated with useful gardening snippets that we should all take note of – makes me wish I had a garden again!

So, for Claire and Ashley, the beach is a very important part of their trips over there, so we got up super early on Sunday morning and headed down, over the dunes, to catch the beach with the tide out. It was incredible to see how many cockle pickers were already up and hunting:

There was much splashing in the surf:

And this reminds me of a James Bond movie!

Tigger is a very important friend

And jumping is a very important game

We headed back down to the beach, amongst the dunes, later in the evening, to try and get some funky shots with the portable lights. This is my favourite shot from the entire weekend – how cool is this dude ?

A huge Thank You to you all for a cracking weekend!