First birthday photoshoot with Ares

Little Ares is turning one this month, and his parents wanted to celebrate in a more meaningful way than buying him lots of gifts that he won’t remember and doesn’t need.

Instead, they booked in for a first birthday photoshoot and cake smash with me, including a gorgeous ‘naked’ cake freshly baked by Cakes by Em.

Servet runs a car wash business in Bicester. There’s a lot of local competition, with a race to the bottom in terms of prices.

Servet has instead – wisely – decided to focus on offering the best car wash in the area, rather than the cheapest.

He set up the business a few years ago, before which he lived and worked in areas I know well; East London and Essex.

When Marina was pregnant, they had a scan at Queens Hospital in Romford, where they were told that the baby was small in size.

At a later appointment at the JR in Oxford, however, they were told that the baby was actually on the larger size!

Indeed, Ares is tall for his age and – like his father – loves being outdoors.

He’s at his happiest at the playground, and isn’t put off by the wind and rain.

Marina, however, is less keen on being outdoors when it’s wet and cold, although she will happily take him on the swings and slides when the weather is nice.

Servet tells me he never went to school. Instead, everything he has learned was picked up by teaching himself as he went along.

He and Marina are now ready for the next stage of their lives: buying their first property.

They hope to get in somewhere they can call their own before the New Year.

And now, they’ll have some gorgeous family images to go on the new wall to make their house feel like a proper home. 🥰 

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If you’re interested in a first birthday cake smash photography session in Bicester, Oxfordshire, please get in contact.

Sarah Plater AMPA is an award-winning qualified, certified professional newborn and family portrait photographer based in Bicester, Oxfordshire.

She is the Master Photographers Association Young Families Portrait Photographer of the Year 2022 and Newborn Photographer of the Year 2019 for the Central Region (covering Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire).