Family Photos with Josh & Ella

“There’s a waterfall here,” three-and-a-half-year-old Josh tells me as we walk back to the car park after our shoot, “and if you throw a coin in you can make a wish!”

“What would you wish for?” I ask him.

He thinks for a few seconds.

“Leaves,” he says.

I am taken aback by how wonderfully simple life is as a young child; that at this age you truly notice how unique, tactile and magical the natural world around you is.

To be offered any wish, and to choose something so simple as ‘leaves’ cannot help but make even a cynical adult smile.

“And a burger,” he adds. Oh well 🙂

Josh is the delightful older brother of his smiley new sibling, happy little Ella who was seven months exactly at the time of our family photoshoot. They already have an incredible bond, with Josh being the first person to get a giggle from Ella when she was just a few weeks’ old.

He’s still the person who is most likely to make her laugh now, and she loves his cuddles and kisses, too.

Mum Helen got in contact as she wanted to update the family photo albums now that she and husband Matt had two little ones. She wanted to keep everything really relaxed and informal, which is how I love to work, too.

Matt is an experienced photographer himself. He’s looking forward to capturing the children’s milestones as they grow, and will be picking up his camera again when Ella is sleeping through the night (giving the grown-ups a little more sleep and hopefully a lot more energy!).

The family are fellow Kingsmere residents, so we all swapped notes about estate life, including our mutual love of the new fish and chips restaurant and takeaway.

Like us, the family have settled in well, and they look forward to making even more use of the local play facilities as their youngest grows.

Indeed, this family are full of fun, from tickles and peek-a-boo with Ella to races, chases and hide-and-seek with Josh.

And they are that magical sort of family where wishes come true, too; not only did Josh find lots of leaves soon after he mentioned them, but the family decided to head off to find him a burger straight after our shoot, too 🙂

After our shoot, Matt said:

“Taking professional pictures of young children and babies is not a challenge for the faint hearted. Throw in a slightly drizzly day, attempting to get some nice family pictures with kids who don’t normally like to pose, and you have to have the patience of a saint. Thankfully not only does Sarah have this in spades, her ability to engage with small people to make the process fun, and generate very natural poses with and without the grown-ups is incredible. It also helps that she’s also a genuinely lovely person! The result is some amazing, professional, high quality family portraits we’re delighted with, and which we’ll be able to treasure.”

Matt, Family Photography client from Bicester, Oxfordshire

If you’d like to get booked in, or if you have any questions about family photography with me, please get in contact. I can’t wait to meet you!:

Sarah Plater LMPA is an award-winning, qualified, professional 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).