Tuesday, 10 January 2012

Capturing life's special moments

I knew from the start when I was pregnant that I wanted to get some decent photographs taken. I remember as a child looking through family photographs and being amazed that there seemed to be only one photograph of my mum pregnant in existence. I found this really odd and because of that I decided that if needs be I would pay to get some done. To be honest I thought there would be lots of pictures of me pregnant. We have quite a busy group of friends, we are always off doing things and there is usually at least one camera in circulation. It soon became apparent to me why there were so little photos of my mum pregnant - I couldn't be bothered to be in pictures! I felt full, uncomfortable and hippo like at some stages so the thought of cracking a smile and trying to look remotely flattering in spur of the moment photosnaps taken by friends was a complete no-no! The image on the right is me at Take That with about 6 weeks until due date....hippo!

It just so happens that I have a friend, Bec, (who also has a blog - http://jenniferthebook.wordpress.com/ in case any of you are interested in another mummy blogger) who's daughter won the Next model baby competition last year and she had made friends with a local photographer to do her daughters portfolio work. The images he produced were top notch and he certainly has taken more and more stunning photos of her to this day. I decided this was the man I wanted to document the bump!

On a warm, summer's day in June, I made my way with my 36wk bump, Bec and baby Jennifer in tow to Gary Hill's studio. He is currently based in Kirkham, near Preston, which wasnt too far to travel. I had previously emailed Gary to see what kind of shoot we could do, I wanted something tasteful but I still wanted bump on show. He reassured me that all the photographs would be tasteful and we would only do what I felt comfortable with so I took a bag of suitable underwear, vest tops and some baby bits we'd already bought bump and thought I'd see how I felt on the day.

We took a variety of photographs in all sorts of styles and I can definitely say that within 5 minutes of arriving, and a good cup of tea, I felt very comfortable being around Gary and knew that we would get some great photos. I had my heart set on getting some nice images for the nursery so we balanced some booties and a teddy on my tummy as I lay on the floor. I have to say I felt a bit like a tortoise when I had to get up off the floor we I dont think I managed with any grace or elegance but never mind. The day had most certainly been a success!!



Gary had mentioned that he would really like to get some tiny newborn babies for his portfolio and having seen the quality of the images he produced from our bump shoot I was more than happy to offer my baby up for a bit of modelling. Louie arrived on Sunday 14th (2 weeks late might I add!) and because of how he was born I had to stay in hospital until Tuesday afternoon for observation of my blood etc. I threatened that I would make something to lower myself out of the window with my bed linen if they didnt let me out! We got Louie home and settled and I got in touch with Gary. At 5 days old Gary came to our house and my little man made his modelling debut - he seemed to quite enjoy himself. Another sucessful shoot with Gary if I dont say so myself :)
 
By this point I could feel myself wanting to have Gary take every single photograph of Louie, an exspensive addiction, but a bloody good use of money! I'd have liked nothing more than to make Gary live under the stairs, Harry Potter style, and take him out on a daily basis to capture what was going on. To be fair Im pretty certain Louie thinks the camera is another member of the family as he sees it that much!
A couple of months passed but I kept in touch with Gary, who I now consider a buddy of mine, and just before Christmas I decided that it would be nice to get some pictures of all 3 of us so once again I called upon Gary's services. Ste, myself and a 2 1/2 month old Louie set off back to his studio to do a family photoshoot. We took some photos of all 3 of us, Ste and Louie, me and Louie and some of the little guy on his own - plenty of variety to choose from and all of them were stunning.
Louie had always been able to hold his head well from an early age but it was around this time that he appeared very strong so we did some pictures of Louie on his front which I think amongst these is one of my favourites taken of all time so far. These photos would then be dished out to everyone as Christmas presents in a variety of shapes and sizes and loved by absolutely everyone.


I will always recommend Gary Hill to anyone and everyone and since our shoots we've had a few friends who have also had family photographs taken with amazing results.
And I bet within the next few months I'm pestering Gary for another shoot, but for now I'll let you lot have a look at what he can do and let some other people sit in front of his lens :)



http://www.gdhphotography.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/GDHPhoto

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