A few weeks ago a very special little girl turned one and I was lucky enough to spend the morning of her birthday with her!

Happy Birthday sweet Charlotte!

As a photographer it is always exciting to photograph identical twins.  It’s even more exciting to go back for a second time and see how they have grown!

Recently I had the pleasure of photographing Caitlin and Isabella for the second time at this family session in Watford, Hertfordshire.  Claire asked me to take some pictures for their first birthday along with a few of big sister Jasmine.  These are the pictures I took a year ago when they were just 8 days old.  Claire has a canvas of one of the images in her kitchen – and straight away I knew I wanted to get a picture of them sitting in front of it.  We had to rearrange the whole kitchen to take the shot – but I think it was worth it!

This is definitely right up there as one of my favourite sessions to date, it was incredibly difficult to narrow down the images to share – so get comfy!!  And by the end of taking – and editing – all these pictures – yes I do believe I can finally tell them apart!!!

A first birthday is such a wonderful age to capture – so much fun and personality – please get in touch if you would like me to capture this stage for you! ]]> http://www.clairelanephotography.com/2013/03/1st-birthday-twins-i-watford-family-session/feed/ 1 http://www.clairelanephotography.com/2013/02/family-photo-session-i-hertfordshire-photographer/ http://www.clairelanephotography.com/2013/02/family-photo-session-i-hertfordshire-photographer/#comments Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:56:32 +0000 Claire Lane http://www.clairelanephotography.com/?p=2972 NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

One beautiful Saturday morning a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting a lovely young family in Watton at Stone, Hertfordshire.  It was the first sunny day of the whole year I think, and it was just gorgeous, perfect for a happy family session!  Jeff contacted me back in October about doing a photo session with their baby-to-be before Baby O was even born!  It was a very sweet birthday present for his wife Marie.

It was great to meet Baby O, now aged 3 months, at long last and he was a real little cutie!  He was teething and he made us work hard for these smiles but it was worth it!  Here are a few of my favourites from their session:

A few months back I had the pleasure of spending the morning with Zoe in her lovely Hemel home right on the canal!  She was expecting her first baby and pregnancy was really suiting her, she looked amazing!  You can see her bump session here but here are a couple of my favourites:

And now Baby I has arrived!  She was certainly worth waiting for, she is absolutely gorgeous!  When we did the photos last week Baby I was 9 weeks old which is a little older than I usually photograph newborns.  Babies tend to have a mind of their own by this age, so there was no telling her what to do, we just had to go with the flow!  We wanted to do some more pictures on the beautiful purple chaise longue – but Baby I had other ideas!! This meant fewer posed photos of Baby I asleep, and more lifestyle ones with Mummy and Daddy – this suits me just fine as it’s what I prefer anyway, I love to capture those connections between parent and child.

Here are a few of my favourites from the day.  Congratulations to Zoe and Paul you have an absolutely adorable baby girl! ♥

On Saturday I had the pleasure of spending the morning with Chloe, Jason and their gorgeous 5 week old baby boy, Ollie!  Chloe was Katie’s Rainbows leader up until she went on maternity leave to have Ollie.  When she left, the Rainbows Mums wanted to thank her for being such an amazing leader, and contributed towards a newborn photography session for her and Jason.

Upon arriving I discovered that Jason is also a very keen and talented photographer – talk about pressure!!  I think it made a nice change for him to be on the other side of the camera for once though, and I was sure to get plenty of Daddy and Baby shots.

It was a dull and dreary ‘Summer’ morning, and poor Ollie had a tummy ache for much of the session so the gods weren’t really smiling on us, but we had a lot of fun and got some great images!  I was glad to be able to draw on my recent Natural Light class to utilise some of the dramatic light – I particularly love the shots in his cot!  Being a slightly “older” newborn Ollie was more awake and alert, so we were also able to get some great ‘wide eye’ shots which are such a treat at this age!

Congratulations Chloe and Jason on your new arrival, he is absolutely adorable!!  Here are a few of my favourites to share:

Oh my poor neglected blog!!  The Easter holidays have got in the way of me keeping up with posting what I’ve been up to on here!

I’ve still been out and about shooting though so lots of catching up to do.  I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Baby E for the first time, a little sister for the gorgeous Miss O!  You might remember I did her Mummy’s bump pictures back in February alongside cooking a roast chicken dinner!!

Well now Baby E is here and she is gorgeous, and Miss O is such a proud big sister!

Here are a few more of my favourites from the session.  Congratulations to Mummy, Daddy and O on your new arrival!

Ooh this is the one I have been sooo excited about sharing!  When our good friends G and C asked me to photograph their newborn identical twin girls I couldn’t say yes fast enough!  They already have a son S who is 4 and a daughter J who just turned 3!  So they have their hands pretty full!

I did C’s maternity pictures back in January at 30 weeks, when she was already at term-size for one baby!  Here are a few of my favourites from that session:

At 36 weeks and 2 days identical twin girls C and I were born naturally, well done Mummy!  Last weekend we braved the traffic on a Saturday afternoon and drove down to London to meet them for the very first time.  And they were so teeny tiny!  I had never held a baby so small, they were like little dolls.

And at just 8 days old here they are!  Aren’t they beautiful?

Mummy told me they sleep all the time and have to be woken for feeds every three hours.  Um….not this day!!  No, they decided to say “Hello World, we’ve arrived!!!”  It took us quite some time to get them both fed and happy to settle and sleep.  I think even at 8 days old they were wondering, “Who’s the mad lady climbing up that ladder?”!!  But eventually we did, and then had to work against the clock as the light started to fade.  It was definitely the hardest session I’ve done, but gosh, how rewarding!  Loved every minute and here are a few more of my favourites.

Congratulations Mummy and Daddy on your gorgeous family!

Last month I shared a picture of proud big brother-to-be I who couldn’t stop kissing his little brother inside Mummy’s tummy!

Well now little brother R has arrived and he is absolutely adorable!  Unfortunately Daddy and his two big brothers were unable to be there for our session, but that made for some really lovely quiet time for Mummy and her youngest boy, and we got some really special photos!

Here are a few of my favourites…..

Congratulations Mummy and Daddy on your newest arrival and enjoy life as a fabulous family of five!!

I’ve had some real fun in the last couple of weeks!!

Last week I had the absolute pleasure of meeting 10 day old Baby A. Her Daddy is the brother of my ‘longest-standing’ (she doesn’t like me to say oldest!!!) friend who I’ve known for a terribly scary 33 years .

It was a lovely relaxed session, and these are some of my favourites……

And at the weekend we met up with some old friends from London. A is expecting her second baby in around 3 weeks, a little brother or sister for 3 year old O. Unfortunately Rob had to work, so alongside taking their photos I also had to cook a roast chicken lunch for us all!! Never let it be said that I’m not multi-talented!!!!!

We had a lot of fun and again, these are some of my favourites. Look out for the newborn pics in a couple of weeks!

And I can’t resist one last one of beautiful big sister Miss O. She is just the most photogenic little girl, just look at those eyes!!