I have always been a person to avoid being photographed whether at a party or family dinner, I somehow seem to avoid it! I guess for me being behind the camera is a great way to hide! However I started to realise that there were few pictures of myself and my two boys that I truly felt good in, and I suddenly felt really sad that I didn’t have any pictures of myself and the boys to put up in our house; records of us all together.

I contacted a fellow photographer Bella West to do a shoot for us, as I loved her style and felt comfortable with her. I didn’t want someone too loud or high energy, Bella was calm, kind and patient and that suited us perfectly. The days before our shoot, I had spent ages getting ready, deciding on outfits for all of us, thinking about hair, make-up, even having a facial done. It was great to arrive to arrive at the shoot feeling really good about the way I looked though. We had out shoot done near Dorset in a beautiful location. At first it was incredibly strange walking together, trying to appear natural but at the same time being conscious of how I looked and what the boys were doing! After a while though we all loosened up and were able to be ourselves in front of the camera. This was when the best stuff started to happen. We might not have all been looking at the camera smiling broadly but we were together, talking to each other, feeling close and it is those moments that meant the most to me. Below are a couple of photos from the shoot!