As you know, safety is at the heart of everything I do in my business, and especially when photographing young children and babies; I’ve posted a number of times about safe handling and photographic techniques I use for newborn photoshoots. This month, I decided to take things a step further and update my first aid knowledge, so I attended a Mini First Aid class. These classes are designed with new parents and grandparents in mind and are focussed on first aid techniques for children – which are often a bit different to the way you would treat an adult. Specifically, the class covered To View More >>

I am delighted to welcome Alex Duxbury, Director of Lifft Slings as today's guest blogger! Lifft Slings is a family run business and all of Lifft's Stretchy Wraps and Pouch Slings are made here in sunny Yorkshire. Alex is a trained babywearing consultant (Slingababy trained) and can demonstrate how to wear a sling in less than 2 minutes! Check out her online 'How To' instructions on the Lifft website. Benefits of carrying children There are many emotional, social, physical and practical benefits of carrying infants in your arms or in a sling.  Soft slings To View More >>

I am delighted to welcome Connie Tu from Created by Connie as today's guest blogger!  Connie is an award winning, ICNHA certified, insured and passionate henna artist with a natural eye for placement and a flair for contemporary fusion designs. Connie provides professional, all natural henna body art services throughout Bradford and West Yorkshire. One of her favourite things is pregnancy henna and belly blessings... Belly / Mother Blessing Celebrations Pregnancy henna, in the way of Belly Henna, is a growing global trend in last decade or so, often as part To View More >>

In previous posts, I have discussed the safe use of props when photographing newborns. Sometimes, where the baby’s safety cannot otherwise be guaranteed, props must be completely ‘photoshopped’ in afterwards and we use what are known as 'digital props'. This is where the photographer takes a photograph of the prop (or purchases an image) separately from the baby and then the two images are composited together later to create a single photograph.  An example of when this technique is often used is for any image where the baby appears suspended To View More >>

As we know, newborns are very delicate, they have poor muscle control and a strong moro reflex (an involuntary response to feeling unsupported) necessitating great care and patience during a photo session. They must be carefully supported at all times and certainly never left on their own. In this series of posts, I will show you how I ensure that babies are appropriately and safely positioned and supported to create some of my more popular images, and perhaps more to the point, I will show you how supporting hands are removed using Photoshop afterwards, i.e. the baby is never left balancing To View More >>