A home shoot with Jo Bradley

When Jade from the Voice contacted me to see if I would be interested in taking part in a newborn home shoot with Jo Bradley I jumped at the chance. Jo specialises in newborn photography, she has won awards for her work with the Guild of Professional Photographers and trained with one of the leading newborn photographers in the UK So I knew I was going to witness something incredible.

We made an appointment for Jo to visit our home when Lylie would have been 8 days old, unfortunately due to the complications I experienced with my caesarean section (read here) and my subsequent second hospital stay we had to postpone. Jo arrived with us on the morning of the 17th of November, the day Lylie turned 14 days old and it also happened to be the day that Lylie decided to wake up! Typically newborn shoots should take place as early as possible, and certainly within the first two weeks of birth. During this time babies are usually more sleepy and therefore easier to mould into the perfect position for beautiful picturesque shots. Lylie definitely made Jo work for the perfect image, but I think you will agree from the beautiful images that Jo managed to get more than just one money shot.

It is safe to say that Jo has the patience of a saint, even though Lylie had been up most of the previous night (I definitely needed more than one layer of double wear on that day) she spent the whole day very grizzly. Jo seemed to have the magic touch and managed to keep her calm and in the perfect position. As first time parents we even picked up some tips to help get Lylie back to sleep and to sooth belly aches.

Jo doesn't only do home shoots, if you shiver at the thought of someone coming into your home just after you have given birth (and lets face it haven't had time to do any cleaning) Jo also has a home studio in Chelmsford but there is something rather special about the photos being taken in your own environment, and lets face it you simply can't get any more bespoke. Ahead of the scheduled shoot date I emailed some images of our home over to Jo so she had a good idea of what she would be working with. We have only recently moved into this house so there is a lot of decorating to still be completed, Jo picked out area's with the best light and unique features to capture the perfect pictures. Our kitchen is the main reason we chose to purchase our home so the gorgeous image of our stunning Lylie looking angelic on the titles in our kitchen was an instant favourite.

On my second admission to hospital I kept having a horrible thought that if I didn't make it home Lylie would never have a photo of her and her mum, I know it sounds like such a morbid thought but things really did get awfully dramatic for a while. Jo was keen to take some photos of us along side the star of the show Lylie and although I am not the keenest person in the world at having my photo taken to have some professional family snaps was really important to me. Myself and my husband needed lots of direction from Jo as to how to position ourselves, and Lylie even decided it would be hilarious to have a little wee on daddy (mummy found it quite funny too) but even with a pair of extremely amateur models the finished product was definitely frame worthy.

To top everything off the most wonderful part of having a home shoot is being able to have your pets involved. If you happen to follow me on Instagram you will know that one of the main loves of my life is my Shih Tzu Ralph, he is our first baby and an absolute pleasure to be with everyday. They say never work with animals and children and now we know why, it did take quite a few dog treats to get Ralph close enough to Lylie to insinuate that they loved each other as currently he is a bit scared of the whirlwind that baby girl is. When Jo shared this photo of the two of my babies together on her Facebook page it had me in tears and it's easy to see why.

If you are expecting in 2017 I highly recommend booking yourself a newborn shoot, Lylie is now six weeks old and has already changed so much. Every day with a new born just runs away from you, I can not stress how important it is to relish every moment and having gorgeous images to cherish forever is the perfect way to do so.