Paige’s First Birthday & Family Shoot

Bicester mum Michelle was the lucky winner of a free photoshoot with a framed print. Although she won the prize before Christmas, she knew exactly when she wanted to have the session: when her daughter, Paige, turned one.

So we met up to talk about what Michelle was hoping for from the prints. I met her partner, Anton, and at first both he and Michelle were planning not to be in any of the images. I’m so glad they changed their minds.

Because when you have a baby, the images that you capture aren’t just for you anymore. They are also for your children, who in later life will look at them for a glimpse of their first few days, weeks and months of existence. As adults, we rarely retain our memories of life before we were 7 years’ old. So we look to our family portraits to see what we’ve forgotten. And we want to see ourselves with our mum and dad, so we can see for ourselves the fun and connection they had with us from the start.

We also get to see glimpses of our early character and personality – and Paige has both in bucketloads. As soon as I got her grinning away, the rest of us couldn’t help but laugh. She has an incredibly contagious giggle, and babbles away in sentences that sound so much like someone delivering a brilliant – and hilarious – anecdote.

We discussed outfits, colours and themes and agreed a cream and blush palette for the shoot. These colours will look great on Michelle’s walls, and also worked with the props Michelle had chosen.

We captured everyone together, each parent with Paige and plenty of the birthday girl on her own. Anton and Michelle look fab – but little Paige can’t help but steal the show with her superb smiles 🙂

After our shoot, Michelle said:

“I cannot rate Sarah highly enough! I am so pleased with the photos I just want to show everyone! It was a really fun experience and I’ve never met a more patient photographer. Sarah managed to capture beautiful images despite my one year old daughter who kept crawling away! I am definitely going to use Sarah again in future and I highly recommend her!”

Michelle, First Birthday and Family Photoshoot Client from Bicester, Oxfordshire

If you’re interested in family photography, please get in contact:

Sarah Plater LMPA is a qualified professional family photographer based in Bicester, Oxfordshire.