Mothers in the frame, Georgina’s family shoot {location shoots Chelmsford, Essex}

When a talented photographer and friend tells you she’s coming over from Kenya where she now lives with her husband, obviously you are thrilled you get to see her. Then, when she tells you that whilst she’s here she would love you to photograph her and her daughters, you are mega flattered and even more excited. These young ladies (I include George here – why has she not aged a day!) are all totally lovely and totally beautiful! It’s a no brainer, stunners and geeky camera chat…here’s how our shoot unfolded!

After much squealing and emotional hugs,and that was from us not the children, and the obligatory “you haven’t changed a bit!”, this is me to George obvs, she tried to lie back but my wrinkles and baby weight screamed louder…anyway I must quit the self deprecating (oh big word, get me) mama bashing – as ironically the whole point of this blog is quite the opposite…anyway as usual I digress!

It’s obviously amazing to see an old friend (not “old” like that, soz George) but photographing friends is scary and quite risky – if she hates her pictures, could she be honest – oh god I hope not! And secondly, she’s a bloody photographer herself, really scary, she’ll know if the photos aren’t tack sharp (which obvs they always would be be but just saying) and her expectations will be high…Oh god maybe this wasn’t a good idea – Joke!

George was so sure she wanted me to photograph her, because like me, as a photographer, she is always taking the pics, so we rarely exist in our own family albums and photographs. And this doesn’t just apply to photographer mums. It relates to all mums! We are the snot supervisors, day trip organisers, bum wipers (lucky us), tantrum tamers, not to mention the fact that we often feel fat, concealer free, knackered or all of the above…so we rarely want to get in photographs. And often there is no bugger there to offer to take them anyway! 3 year olds are great at some things however I’ve yet to meet one who takes a cracking family portrait.

So the task of today was to photograph George actually with her beautiful daughters Isabelle and Amelie.  So she can exist in her photo history and her girls will see she was “there”.

Wow look at the results of this stunning shoot, now one of my fave shoots. Should I have faves, maybe not, but I’m only human! Not a bad hair day or snot issue in sight. Georgina looks absolutely stunning. She is real, beautifully real, and full of joy! And check out her gorgeous girls! I’m so happy that I got to give George some timeless and natural portraits of herself and her lovely family. Daddy who is travelling over to join his stunning girls soon was also thrilled. So photographs really can spread joy and happiness, a bit like Justin Timberlake. They are the gift that keeps on giving.

Come on get in the frame with your family now. It’s not scary or weird, I’ll make it fun I promise. Get in touch today and let’s build those family albums, the time is now. Don’t wait til you are slimmer, less knackered or your kids less annoying – let’s capture your real family and all it’s natural, beautiful chaos. Let’s celebrate our muffin tops of motherhood together.

I can’t wait to meet you! (look carefully you might see me in here too…can you see my muffin top??!!)

Kika x