Family & Sibling Portraits for Elsie’s first birthday

Nothing marks the passage of time quite like meeting the same young family in the same location, one year later.

A year ago I spent a beautiful summer’s evening capturing maternity portraits of Nadia’s beautiful family of three plus bump. A few weeks later we had a newborn and sibling shoot together, celebrating perfect little Elsie’s arrival into the world.

And now, almost exactly a year after that newborn shoot, we met again, on another beautiful summer’s evening to mark Elsie’s upcoming first birthday.

During our maternity shoot the lavender was in full bloom (July); this shoot was slightly later in the year (August), which meant that the lavender fields were a more subtle shade of purple, but still stunning.

After last seeing and cuddling Elsie as a newborn baby, it was a happy shock to be met with a toothy grin and see her already confident footsteps at just under 12 months old! Her big brother Louie is even smarter, even faster and just as cheeky as I remember!

Louie is a huge dinosaur fan, and one of my favourite memories of him is how he kept himself entertained during Elsie’s newborn shoot. Normally older siblings just join us at the start or end of a session, and then dad takes them home or off to a playground so they don’t get bored during the rest of the shoot.

However, Nadia and her husband Shane travelled over from Bedfordshire, so it wasn’t possible to pop home midway through the shoot. In addition, the wet weather made a trip to the playground difficult.

Happily, the family had packed plenty of toys, and these are what I saw when I stepped into the hallway while Elsie was feeding: every tile of the flooring had a dinosaur standing in its centre. Each one faced towards the one in front, curving around the stairs and towards the back of the house, giving the effect of a Jurassic procession towards Noah’s arc.

Amazingly, Louie knew what each type of dinosaur was called, and I was delighted that his fascination with them is still going strong when we met this year.

Louie is very fond of his little sister, and it’s clear that she looks up to him. I can’t wait to see them and their wonderful parents again – don’t grow up too fast in the meantime, though!

After our shoot, Nadia said:

“Oh Sarah these are great. You have captured my two so well. My favourite image has to be the one of me with my 2… don’t get many great ones that aren’t selfies ? Thank you again for the photos. Louie had a great time on Tuesday chasing dinosaurs with you.”

Nadia, Family Photography client from Bedfordshire

If you’re interested in newborn portraits or family photography in and around Bicester, Oxfordshire, please get in contact:

Sarah Plater LMPA is an award-winning qualified, certified professional newborn and family portrait photographer based in Bicester, Oxfordshire. She is the Master Photographers Association Newborn Photographer of the Year 2019 for the Central Region (covering Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire).