Time was at a premium, as they were flying out on Tuesday evening. The scheduled session on Sunday evening had to be cancelled due to poor weather, and the forecast for Monday afternoon looked good, so we thought we would give it a go.

The R family, with their gorgeous daughter Samaira

Alas, the British weather did what it does best.. torrential rain at inconvenient moments! We were undeterred though, and in between showers I grabbed shots here and there.

Cute as a button Samaira with her gorgeous mother Sunaina

After doing Hyde Park Corner, we hopped in a black cab down to Westminster. What photo session in London is complete without Big Ben?

Mother and Daughter and some iconic London images

And of course, the London Eye!

Father Vaibhav with sweet Samaira

Finally, on Embankment, it was time to finish up, just as the sun decided to consider a reappearance! I leave you with a heavily stylised romantic photo of the parents:

Vaibhav and Sunaina at Embankment

It was great fun to photograph the R family – despite the horrible weather, they were full of enthusiasm and smiles and kept on posing no matter what! It was lovely to meet you, R family, and I hope your flight home was a good one. There are plenty more photos where this session came from, and they should be ready in a week or so!

Regular followers of my work here may have noticed that these photos are not my usual style. Well, the R family wanted something a bit different, and I was more than happy to oblige as some of the styles here are ones I am familiar with as I use them for my own personal photography. If you’re a future customer and you like this sort of thing, do let me know!

Newborn Baby Z having an interesting dream

It was also a chance to try out my new baby poser, which is suitable for children from newborn until they can sit unsupported. It was very easy to use and a worthwhile investment, along with the sheepskin rug I used for the photo below:

Newborn baby Z contemplates life on a sheepskin rug

He also got to try out my new basket too!

Newborn baby Z in a basket

I also took some photographs of Z with his parents. These have come out very well – here is one with his gorgeous mother.. I could not believe she’d recently had a baby!

Newborn baby Z and his mother

We did some family photos as well (he has an adorable older brother S who is two and a half who did brilliant “cheese”s for me!) which I will maybe share at a later date. The family were very enthusiastic and had lots of great ideas – it was great fun working with them.

In the meantime, I leave you with a photo of a very sweet Z in this gorgeous hat. Handmade by Jo at Halobaby (take a look, she has some fabulous stuff!) it really suits him!

Baby Z in a hat made by Jo at Halobaby.co.uk

Despite the gloomy light (thank you British summer!) we managed to get a lot of great shots, which I am very much looking forward to sharing with the family soon!

It was also a chance to try out my new vinyl “wood” floor, and use the pink backdrop in the studio properly as until now I have only used it with newborns and natural light. You can also see my basket and chair prop if you are interested in using them for your session and later on I used my black velvet backdrop for more moodier shots.

Here’s a selection of some of my favourites, enjoy!

B is getting much better at posing

Then again, dressing her in her favourite clothes works wonders!

B loves being a ballerina

C isn't quite newborn size, but loves the basket!

B and C and the basket

B fits in the basket even less well, but she gives it a go!

C is still a little bit too small for my chair prop

A portrait of B, with my black velvet background

And in case you were wondering why they all look so happy, here’s what my children really think of me photographing them all the time:

Other people’s children are *so* much easier as it’s a novelty!!

I have another newborn session tomorrow, so watch this space in a few days for hopefully a sneak peak.

My daughter on holiday in a fairy garden!

* Updating my branding. The logo you see is one I designed, and ideally I would rather have a more professional one. So I am currently investigating options for a new logo, and therefore new branding. With that will come new business cards, watermarks – the whole lot, and probably a colour scheme change.

* Finding studio space. Unfortunately there isn’t the space, and nor is it practical to operate my studio out of my home I share with my family. And most customers who live in London rarely have the sort of space I really need for a decent full studio session. So I have been investigating some options and I’m pleased to announce that I have an option to inexpensively rent some space when needed in a building very close to Greenwich Station. I will be splitting the costs of the rental with the customer so it will incur a premium but it is more than worth it.

* Advertising. I have launched a Facebook ad campaign, and will be launching a Google Adwords campaign shortly. I already appear pretty high up the rankings in Google (especially for things like “Breastfeeding Photography”) but all these things will help. As always “Word of Mouth” is the best advertising, so if you like my work, I am eternally grateful to those of you who’ve been spreading the word around. Testimonials are extremely appreciated too.. I need more!!

* Portfolios. I’m currently in the process of redoing my portfolio on this site as I was not happy with the Smugmug offering. I’ll let you know when it’s all finished. I’ll also be creating a special breastfeeding portfolio soon, as this is very much an area I want to specialise in too.

* Special Offers. The 50% offer still stands with some sessions left, although they are dwindling, so if you’re umming and ahhing, now is the time to get in quick. I will never offer savings like this again – this is solely because I am starting out and wanting to get my name out there. I am still looking to get a maternity client at 75% off if anybody knows of anyone?

I’ve also reduced the session fees a little to encourage new custom, so if that was putting you off before, why not take another look? I also do mini sessions if you don’t want a full session.

That’s all for now! I did a session with my own children recently (I hadn’t had them in the studio since January so it was well overdue!) so keep an eye open for it here in a few days..

Thank you for reading

Josh is full of smiles

Josh’s mother wanted some breastfeeding photos; memories of a very special time. As is my policy, I won’t post those images here as people might be reading this entry at work, however I will be creating a separate breastfeeding gallery soon.

Josh being held by his mother

Josh was really not in the mood for a jolly good feed, however I did capture some which have turned out well.

The session took place in two places – indoors (the photos above) and outdoors in a garden. Josh lay down on a blanket and loved the shapes of the leaves against the sky!

Watching the leaves

I also took the opportunity to grab a few shots of Josh with his mother too.

Josh with his mother

I do enjoy taking breastfeeding photos – as someone who has been breastfeeding babies/toddlers for nearly four years now, I know how special it is.. and I also know how easy it is to not have any photos of that time at all. It’s so easy to forget to and then it is too late.

It was lovely to meet Josh and his mother Suzi – Josh is a very well-behaved and extremely cute little man who gave me the biggest smiles!

Baby Eleanor

Eleanor, like Alexander was born prematurely, in Eleanor’s case she was born at 33 weeks back in April. So although she’s actually a few months old, she’s very close to newborn age gestationally.

In a basket!

Despite this, she’s doing absolutely fantastic – she’s doubled her birthweight and starting to build up some adorable baby fat!

Sleeping

Eleanor was ever so good. Not only did she sleep for most of the session (I’m sure the hot weather helped with that a little!) but she graced us with lots of wonderful expressions when she was awake as well.

What's going on?

It was a real pleasure to meet mum Jacqui, and photograph sweet baby Eleanor, and I’m very much looking forward to post-processing the rest of the photos from the session!

Ruby and her Dad

Sophie is a big cloth nappy fan, so out came the cloth nappies!

Ash and the nappy stash

Faith is the oldest, and did a grand job with posing:

Faith

Faith and her mum Sophie

At the end of the session, the children even allowed mum and dad to snatch a quick pose themselves!

James and Sophie

You can see their full gallery by clicking on the link here.

It was all great fun, both to capture the images and to process them. Thank you again to Sophie and James and their family for being such great models!

All future sessions, including those I have not yet completed (there’s still a few portfolio-building ones I am finishing off) will go into one of these galleries to make it much easier to order prints or more.

I’m currently in the process of collecting testimonials from everybody on their appropriate blog page. Thank you very much to those who have already sent theirs – it is very much appreciated!

Just about everything is in place now, including prices and my portfolio galleries. I am just tying up a few loose ends like sorting out business cards and I shall be ready to go with the official business launch. The site itself is just about ready – I’ve added and fleshed out quite a few sections now and I now have a splash page. Obviously as it’s a website, it’s an ongoing project so I’ll continue to work on it once I’m launched.

I only have TEN slots available with an initial 50% discount on nearly all prices. If you, or anybody you know, wants custom photography in the near future, I suggest you get in quick! I am actually taking bookings – use my “Contact” page to get in touch. I’m also going to be offering referral bonuses as well.

My name is Rosanna, and I am a friendly, experienced and qualified custom portrait photographer, sometimes known as a fine portrait photographer. I am currently based in the South East of London, UK, but I am willing to travel outside this area to places such as the rest of London, Kent, Essex and occasionally Oxfordshire, Surrey, Sussex and Berkshire.

I specialise in photographing children of all ages, in particular pre-school children and newborns. I also cover adults as well, including maternity and couples or just general portraits. I am very happy to do whole family photographs. One area I am particularly specialising in is breastfeeding photography – it is all too easy to let that precious time go by without a record and not many photographers offer this.

I can either take photos outdoors in natural light, or alternatively I have a portable studio I can bring to your location for studio sessions. I also have full studio equipment that I can bring to you if you have the space, or alternatively I can hire a local venue for us to use at a very reasonable rate. I have a variety of different backdrops and surfaces I can use for a truly individual look. I have a wealth of experience in post-processing, and I am also open to requests (within reason!) so you can be assured your final images will look their very best.

Once a session is complete and the images post-processed, you can order your photos in the comfort of your own home using my online proofing gallery. I offer digital downloads as well as prints, photobooks and canvases. Other items, such as acrylics, I can arrange on request.

For more information about me, and the services I offer, please feel free to browse the information pages on this site which you can also access from the menu at the top.

Please also check out my portfolio, which has examples of both indoor/studio photographs and my outdoor photographs to help you decide if my style is one you would like for your photographs.

This website is also a blog. After every session, so long as the customer wishes it, I will write a few words and upload a few “sneak peak” images for everyone to enjoy. Occasionally I will use the blog to chat about the business or any special offers. You can access older posts by using the archive or categories options in the menu at the top, or read below for the latest posts. If you have an RSS reader, you can subscribe to this blog here.

For newborns and very young babies, I sometimes use “Silver Rosebuds, Studio Photography” as branding if you see it around.

All comments are very welcome, so please do feel free to comment if anything grabs your eye!

If you wish to contact me, please use the contact form or you can email me at info @ silverashphotography.co.uk. You can also leave a message at 020 3137 6565.

Thank you for reading!

Starting Special Offer

As a special business launch offer, I am giving a discount of 50% off pretty much everything, from the session fee to prints and digital downloads. This offer applies until the end of September, 2010. From October, the offer is gone, never to be repeated to anywhere close to this discount level again. So why not grab the chance to get some professional custom portraits at a highly affordable price while you can?

Please see my Investment page for full details on pricing.

Back in February, I launched my portrait photography business – Silver Ash Photography.

Up until that point I had been photographing only my own children, so in order for me to be taken seriously as a photographer I needed much more than my own family as subjects in my portfolio. So I asked if anyone would be willing to pose for free portfolio-building sessions. Within 8 hours I had no fewer than 24 offers, so I had to close the offer sharpish! 15 of those offers translated into actual sessions over the following two months. It’s been busy!

Those sessions have been invaluable. Not only have I learned so much about photography and dealing with clients, but I’ve also gained plenty of confidence as well. Thank you so much to everyone who offered and especially to those who I actually photographed – you were all fantastic. If you would like to leave a testimonial, it would be very welcome – just look for the blog page with your photos on and comment!

It’s been quite a varied ride! From newborns to couples, horses to Cambridge Academia and a hefty dose of children – my portfolio certainly looks varied these days..

I’ve divided my work into two sections. Indoor/Studio work, and outdoor work. These are now on my blog, under the “Gallery” heading at the top of the page.

* You can see my new Studio/Indoor portfolio here
* You can see my Outdoor portfolio here

In case you’re interested in all the work I’ve done over the last two months, you can view the whole lot over on my SmugMug account here:

* http://sparklies.smugmug.com/SilverAsh

So what now? Well, I only managed to do 10 images for some of the sessions as I ran out of time, so I’m hoping to do a few more for some people – keep your eyes open for an email from me if you’re one of those! I’ll post the best here when I’ve finished.

Charging for Images

With the portfolio-building out the way, it is now time for me to start charging for my photography. Much as I’d love to be able to afford to be in a position to do this for free, ultimately it’s about earning an income as well.

One reason for having so many free sessions was so I could be confident in the prices I will be setting – that I am capable of producing good quality work time and time again. I’m not entering the industry at the bottom of the pile – my aim is to start out as a quality photographer and improve from there..

I’m currently putting together a pricing package which I believe is fair and reflects the standard of my work. Many of you, especially those who have not used a custom photographer before, will probably be very surprised at the prices I will be charging, but a good, third-party explanation of why custom photography is not cheap can be found here. To cut a long story short, there’s a lot more to it than just showing up with a camera for a few hours – the post-processing can be as much as an hour per image or more in rare cases. To be blunt, it’s why my images look good – the photo-taking is only the start. Each session takes me upwards of 20 hours of my skilled, professional time. Then there is the time spent developing the business outside of sessions. Plus there is the not inexpensive matter of camera equipment, studio equipment, computer hardware and software, insurances, accounting, marketing, travel costs and plenty more.

I’m partly so defensive over my prices because I can clearly recall being aghast at the prices photographers charged myself and it’s only now the boot is on the other foot that I can see that photography is sadly not a license to print money! However, I firmly believe that it is worth every penny with the right photographer. You can’t put a price on a precious moment in time captured in high quality.

When I have finalised my pricing and finished developing my client proofing gallery (currently in progress) I’ll be looking for new, paying customers. As a special offer, I’ll likely be charging a significant discount for the first (to be decided, probably a dozen) paid-for sessions before going totally full price. So if you’re in the market for a bargain quality photography session or know someone who is, keep a close eye on this blog!

Sessions Available

I would still like to practice on one more newborn, and do a maternity session, so if anybody knows of any newborns or pregnant ladies who would like a free session with 10-20 images for free, please get in touch by leaving a comment or contacting me by other means.

If anyone would like a paid-for session sooner rather than later please DO get in touch (as described above) and we can sort something out and I can quote you a very competitive price based on my special offer starting prices. I won’t be actively starting marketing until the start of July to give myself time to sort everything out but I am available for sessions.

My specialty is child photography but I am very flexible, and open to most types of photography going. For more information, see my “About Me” page.

Anyway, that’s all for now.. please keep following this blog either here or on Facebook for more news and photography! I have some great photos from my recent trip to the US to share hopefully soon for starters.

I’ve done a few sessions in Greenwich Park over the last few months – Mofette and her friends and a very cold session with James just two months ago. This session was a lot warmer!

Prakriti and her children

Kail has just had his third birthday very recently, and Simran was 7 months at the time (5 months adjusted as she was premature) and both were absolutely cute as a button!

Simran

Kail

The children were very well-behaved and were great fun to photograph too.

Playing with their mother's sunglasses!

Kail from above

Joe is the father – here he is with Simran:

Joe and Simran

The family were good fun to shoot and had a great sense of humour. It was lovely to meet them!

Family in front of the Royal Observatory

And that concludes my free sessions, aside from any maternity/newborns which I still have a few slots left on. More about that in my next post!

Before I left, I did two more sessions on the weekend before, but until now I have not had a chance to upload them!

The first of these was a newborn session with handsome Percy, who was born two weeks past his due date – what a contrast to Alexander who was born 5 weeks before! Percy is just a few weeks old for this session.

Percy in a basket

Percy was not all that keen on sleeping, despite being so new!

But he was a good sport even whilst awake, giving lots of good poses.

Playing around

Watching the world

Trying to roll already

He spent a lot of time feeding, as newborns tend to do! So when he wasn’t feeding, he was making his thoughts quite clear..

Percy tries the taste of his arm

Percy has a full head of hair too.

Head shot!

Finally he fell asleep, and I managed to get some of him in the basket!

Sleeping in a basket

It was lovely photographing Percy and meeting his mum Chloe (and the rest of their family!) Percy is a gorgeous little chap and it was a real privilege to be asked to photograph him!

It’s reassuring that I don’t always need my full backdrop (requires at least 10-12 feet across, not to mention 8-10 feet in front) in order to create studio photos.

Laura was good fun to photograph and easy to work with!

Due to the lack of room obviously it was awkward to do full length portraits, but I managed a good selection of head and shoulders.

Of course we can’t forget about the cat!! She was not nearly as enthusiastic as Laura to have her photo taken, but we both love her outraged expression here:

You can see the rest of the photos from the session (including more of her cat) in a larger size at my Smugmug gallery here.

Thank you to Laura, and her cat, for a great session! I have two more sessions (a newborn and a family) remaining to process, which I hope to have done over the next few days.

She has access to private parts of the college that the public, and even regular students were not allowed to enter, which provided some good opportunities:

R in one of the private college rooms

This was also the first time I’d made use of my portable studio set up – no backdrops, but it’s a flash/softbox/reflector system that I can take with me without needing a car. Ideal for reaching people on public transport if car access is difficult.

After a few indoor shots, we headed outside – there were plenty of opportunities there.

A hut in the grounds

An interesting sculpture

And finally of course I had to reuse a location from earlier with K and his family.. I bet it would look even more spectacular in the summer.

Avenue

A very big thank you to R for letting me photograph her in full gowns.. and it was very nice to see her again and catch up!

K, like all small boys, didn’t want to stay still for a second so it was good training for my marathon to chase around after him!

K runs along a path

His mum caught him at one point..

K captured

Here he is with his mum and dad

K and his family

Occasionally we convinced him to sit still.. he did do a great job with posing when asked!

Steps near a pond

As it’s Spring, the daffodils were ablaze, and what better backdrop can you get?

K and the daffodils

And finally, just as we were finishing up, I managed to catch a close-up..

Close-up

Thank you very much to K and his family for letting me photograph them – it was very enjoyable especially hearing about the wedding memories!

Avalon and Jude

Avalon wanted some photos of both Jude on his own and the two of them together in their local park, which has plenty of memories for them.

As well as tree climbing, Jude enjoyed playing on the play equipment:

And as a bonus, a photo of their gorgeous fluffy cat!

I am always impressed by the energy that pre-teen boys have, and Jude was no exception. He certainly kept me fit chasing after him.. no bad thing!

Thank you very much to Avalon and Jude for being such great models. The rest of the photos will be processed in due course

Jo is absolutely stunning – ivory skin with a perfect complexion and beautiful vibrant red hair.

Beautiful Jo

She tried a couple of outfits over the course of the session:

And even a hat:

And what is a photoshoot if you can’t have a silly goth pose?

As with the others, there are more to come at a later date whilst I catch up.

It was a real privilege to photograph Jo, she is an excellent model and of course it made a nice change to have a model that I didn’t have to make silly noises at to get their attention! A big thank you to her husband David who arranged the session and helped out too.

Sleeping baby

Alexander is the first newborn I have photographed since I decided to turn professional so he is extra special.

Still asleep

I used natural light through a window. Unfortunately the weather was wet and dull, but I managed to make the best of the available light.

In a basket

Alexander is very sweet, and pulled the cutest expressions!

What are you doing with that thing?

For a baby so tiny, he has plenty of personality and it was lovely to meet him.

Peeping up from the blanket

He didn’t sleep a lot, but with the help of his mum, I managed to get a few shots of him sleeping.

More sleeping

I really enjoyed this session – it was wonderful to meet Natasha at last, and Alexander is absolutely gorgeous. Thank you very much to Natasha and Joe for letting me borrow your sweet little boy!

There are plenty more to come, however due to my workload (and marathon training) over these last and next few weeks, I am only doing ten at a time from each session and will return to the rest when it is quieter in April.

I hopefully have another newborn to do shortly, and if anyone knows of any other newborns or about-to-be newborns, I am still seeking them (and maternity) for free portfolio-building sessions – these are the only new sessions I am booking for free at this stage.

To come in the next few days – portraits of Jo in the studio.. the first model for my new lights!

There was disaster when I arrived when the fuse went in one of my lights, so I was down to one light for the session. Lesson learned about spares there! Fortunately there was a lot of natural light in the room and I also had my reflector so the session was saved.

Faith is the oldest, and was a fantastic model! Not only did she do everything I asked, but also helped out fantastically with the others too. If every child was like Faith, my life would be so easy.

Faith

Ruby is two years old and full of beans.. and opinions!!

Ruby

Ash is 16 months and was sadly getting over a tummy bug so he wasn’t his usual smiley self, nor was he up for many photos, but I managed to get a few photos of him including this one:

Faith and Ash

Faith and Ruby share a moment

Faith and Ruby

Ruby makes her feelings known to her mum!

Sophie with Ruby

James has his hands full!

James and his girls

There are more to come (and also more of Meg and her horse Pico) hopefully in a few weeks.

Coming up soon – a model in glamorous evening dress, and a newborn!

Pico currently lives in a very nice stables in North London, so I photographed him in his yard.

Here’s a peek at some of the photos from the session.

Pico and Meg

Meg is very close to Pico

Pico

A black and white of the two

I actually had two sessions that day. Coming up tomorrow – Sophie, James and their family!