Newborn photos with 7-day-old Tessa

Alice and Karl’s two eldest daughters were incredibly excited to meet their new sibling, Tessa. To avoid squabbling over who would get to hold Tessa first, Alice came up with a cunning plan. One sister could hold Tessa first, but the other sister would get to hold Tessa longer. 

Six-year-old Ellie gracefully agreed that four-year-old Hayley could go first, and Alice forwarded me the result: a sequence of images capturing the sisters’ awe and adoration as they enjoyed their first cuddles with Tessa. Hayley and Ellie are grinning at each other in the first image, and then studying Tessa intently in the second and third picture as their proud dad looks on. The images have no sound, of course, but you can hear the squeals and giggles just by looking at the children’s faces.

Alice is also a photographer herself, which meant we spent a happy half hour discussing cameras and lenses. She’s come up with a genius way of capturing her children’s growth over time. She’s chosen a special chair, which she’ll use for mini photoshoots with them. By keeping everything in the picture the same, the only thing that will change is her children, enabling her to visually track their growth over time.

In fact, Alice and Karl brought this special chair with them so that we could start a sequence for Tessa during her newborn and family photoshoot with me:

Alice used to run a photography franchise in New Zealand, setting up a portable studio in clients’ homes. Of course, the family miss their friends and the antipodean lifestyle like crazy, but there has been one huge benefit in returning home: they are now just five minutes away from Alice’s sister, ten minutes away from her parents and just under an hour away from Karl’s family. Having those connections nearby has been so important during the pandemic, when travel and socialising have been so restricted.

The family also have an additional member in Bailey, the 10-month-old cockapoo. Bailey is full of energy, which is mostly focused on getting up on the dining table to squirrel away any leftovers and destroying envelopes as they enter through the letterbox. Curiously enough, it’s never the junk mail that Bailey goes for, just letters from HMRC and voting notices, which means there’s a race to pick up the post each morning!

Happily, Ellie and Hayley are at an age where they can get involved with tasks around the house, and they are certainly enjoying their new helper roles as big sister and even-bigger-sister!

The girls love to be outdoors, climbing trees, throwing balls for the dog and making up little games together. Soon enough, Tessa will be able to take part in her sisters’ games, and it’s already clear that they can’t wait for that to happen 🙂

After our photoshoot, Alice said:

“We had a lovely time with Sarah and are delighted with the photos. I’m a photographer as well so know how hard it can be to capture my kids at their best! Sarah made us all feel so relaxed and I’ll treasure the images with me on the other side of the camera for once.”

Alice, newborn photography client from Witney, Oxfordshire

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).