This was my first time photographing the very photogenic little Ava, for her first birthday photoshoot, a milestone photo session.

I honestly cannot put into words just how much I enjoyed photographing this young lady. Mum, Natalie, says one of Ava's favourite new things is her new slide that she got for Christmas and walking, holding someone’s hand.

“The session went really well and I'm very happy with the outcome,” says Natalie. I'm glad to hear she had as positive an experience as I did.

Let's move on to the pictures. Here's Ava in all her 1-year-old glory!

I just wanted to take a minute to talk about the importance of the pre-session warm up. What is this, you might ask? This is the photographer-child interaction time that occurs before we begin the photo session. I always suggest that you show up a little bit early, maybe 15 minutes, to your child photoshoot so we have this time to get to know each other. Especially with young children, it’s going to be a little bit scary interacting with someone they’ve never met before. We want to ensure we can really show off your child’s personality, so we want him or her to be comfortable with me and with the environment. 

If we were to just throw them into the middle of the session and there’s this strange lady with a camera jumping around trying to get them to look and smile, your child is going to tense up and there may even be confusion and tears. We really just want everything to run smoothly.

If you can arrive early, this will give me time to introduce myself to your child, and to try to get a vibe on how the session will go. Some children warm up right away, while others need the entire warm up time to start to feel comfortable and come out of their shells. And that’s OK. I always follow their lead.

After I introduce myself, I will try to get to know your child. I’ll ask her/him questions about what she/he likes or doesn’t like, sing songs, maybe play a game, etc. Just to break the ice a little, so by the time the photo session starts, your child is happy and more familiar with me. Making sure you’re there early enough to have this time is probably one of the most important tips I can give you for your child’s session.

Once we’ve done a photoshoot and your child realises that I’m not scary and we have fun together, the next session shouldn’t need much warm up time at all, if any. But for the very first session together, it is important.

P.S. Want to learn more about my milestone packages? Get in touch via my Contact Page and I'll send you full details. Why not take a look at my Cake Smash and Splash packages too.

I really look forward to hearing from you soon!