Fiona Bielby
- Mar 29, 2021
- 3 min read

Hello again, I'm back!

Well, it’s been a long 4 months but finally, family sessions are back as of today!

Well I'm just as excited as these guys were!

Who out there has had a new arrival in the family and sadly will have nothing other than a selfie to document this milestone moment? There’s nothing wrong with selfies, but they don’t capture you as you are in your little unit with all of your connections and abundances of love that you share for one another.

Born through lockdown 1, I captured them in October.

This was her first trip to Yorkshire, to see her grandparents and meet them properly.

So many people will have had new family members enter their world over Lockdown 3, in the form of small pattering feet or paws even, sadly you weren’t able to get that special time documented like so many usually do. You know, I think we almost started to take this opportunity for granted. All is not lost though, I can still capture you all together and you’ll still have them precious memories to share with everyone now and in the future.

This was taken during a doorstep session, it goes to show you can still get those details, even from a far.

Owen was a few days old here, we caught photos of him with his family in the garden.

The littlest of feet and the cutest of booties, I couldn't resist.

What are the rules?

Outdoor, single households or groups of five (I’m your extra person that makes us up to the six).

If possible, we should aim to stay local, but we are ok to do photos in your garden if you’d like to stay even closer to home for little ones for example.

More than one household is fine but we will need to be creative with social distancing rules still being in place for now.

I’ve missed family photo sessions, they’re so much fun, for those of you who haven’t had one done before they make great gifts if there are any birthdays coming up? They also make perfect images for cards too, so if you want to send a personalised one or postcard to loved ones you should so get this done for sure! My family sessions are very relaxed and informal, I like to get you a mixture of lifestyle shots along with fun, action shots (Be warned these aren’t just for the children!) and groups photos too we do lots of variations and I like to keep them as candid as possible.

Action can be key to getting the younger ones on board and throwing leaves is not only fun, it makes the best photos!

Right! Everyone find a stick and pretend it's a lightsaber or Harry Potter's wand! I love the chaos of this shot, it's full of life and energy.

Let's try and get Penny sitting in the front ok? Penny had other ideas...

Piggy backs are the way forward!

Who doesn't like being chased when they're like under 60??

Bubble machines and other toys can make great distractions and beautiful results come from a good distraction.

They could have all been looking, but I think this is so much more fun, let's talk about what's going on here...

Caught in the moment, Bridget enjoying her boy.

Abrakadabra!!

Before shoots I get asked loads of questions:

Where do you recommend we do the photos? What should we wear? Which session would you recommend? These are just a few off the top of my head. My advice to you would be:

I don’t recommend anywhere in particular for photos, I love the outdoors and in this case, we don’t have a choice, so your shoot can take place in you back garden, somewhere you like walking or in you local play park maybe. Plus if you book the Wild Peony session you can choose 2/3 different locations so your photos are varied, do bare in mind that we don’t want to waste all the time travelling miles between locations, but if we are walking to and from these we can capture you along the way too. When people ask me what they should wear, I always advise them to wear whatever they are comfortable in, wear what you usually do so that your photos are personal to you and your family. The only thing I tend to recommend is, if you can pick a colour palette that compliments your group's clothing, that can pull your photos together and make them look perfect for wall displays or photo books, I’ll explain…

This family went for a neutral palette, with splashes of pattern and subtle colours that blended with their background. The addition of a denim jacket is always a good call too.

Heidi and here family went for a muted, grey palette with the added splash of mustard which looked great in the woodland surroundings .

This pastel palette here looks amazing all together, teaming pastels, denim and solid, dark colours like navy, looks great.

Another splash of mustard, this works so well with the strong blues and earthy greens, they go POP.

The denims, blacks and blues look great here, I particularly like the pastel pink as the additional colour here. So rafter reflecting, try and keep it simple and add a bold colour or pattern to bring out your character, that way your photos are personal to you as a family and the images is about the people rather than the clothing.

Feel free to bring an extra outfit if you go for the Cornflower or Wild Peony sessions, you’ll have time to change clothing in either of them if you’d like to? I know children love changing in to their favourite fancy dress costume! As for which session I'd recommend, you’ll get awesome photos with any of them. All I will say is that if you are not comfortable in front of the camera you will be better going with the Cornflower or Wild Peony packages which you might find strange; nevertheless, by doing that we can plan a little walk and we can chat and snap as we go. I promise this way it will feel less intense and often I find, by the time we finish, people have relaxed and feel more confident in front of the camera too.