Perks of the Job

Actually there are two recent shoots which could warrant this title! The reason the first qualified as a perk is a bit sexist I suppose but I don’t think the clients will mind! The owners of the gorgeous and very friendly Bez (see earlier blog) gave my name to a couple, Stacey and Lee, with four month old India. I was really looking forward to this shoot, partly because I love photographing very young babies, but also because I knew they wanted a very stylised black and white look to the photographs. Oh – and how could I forget to mention that they also have a very handsome boxer dog called Kilo! Regular followers of my blog will know that we have a boxer too and that immediately pre-supposes that we will get on well with all other boxer owners – a bit like the Porsche owners club! (Although I don’t think Porsche would thank me for that analogy!).

Stacey had a very clear idea of what she wanted – very simple images of Lee with India primarily and then anything else was a bonus. With Lee stripped to the waist holding a naked India I set about capturing some special moments between father and daughter. We worked fast as babies have a tendency to mood swings and frequent calls of nature (India only peed all over Lee once!) and I could immediately tell that we were going to have some lovely photographs. It would have been a real shame for Stacey not to be in the shots as well and so I got a few great shots of all three of them. Stacey was wearing a strapless maxi dress and the final shots are just gorgeous, with no clothes to distract from the simplicity. The final challenge was to get some shots of Kilo and then of the family altogether. I have to say that Kilo was brilliantly behaved – are we the only people with a completely bonkers boxer dog?! What could have been utter chaos – parents with baby and dog – was really easy and painless; in fact the whole shoot had been very enjoyable, not like work at all!

Back to perks of the job – it wasn’t until I got back home and looked through the pictures that I realised I had been photographing a really hunky, half naked man. I was quite impressed with my own professionalism – not being distracted on the job as it were! Anyway, I loved the pictures and by all accounts Stacey and Lee are very pleased too. India is absolutely gorgeous and it was exactly the right way to photograph her, so that her beautiful baby skin, tiny toes and fingers and big eyes are the focus of every shot. To find out about the second perk read my blog “A night with a difference”.