Three Little Explorers

This session has to be one of my favourites so far, the location and children were stunning, it involved twins (which I love to photograph), and they made me feel so welcome in their beautiful family home. 

I met Helen and her husband in Stockholm, she's the sweetest lady and was bought the session as a gift from a close friend. We clicked straight away, they were very much in to travelling and their daughter, like me had married in France, so we had lots in common. Together we drove the 20 minutes out of the city to meet the rest of their family at their stunning home.     

It was elevated with views over the water and backing onto the woods, perfect for three little children to explore. Josephine, mummy to the little ones, said they wanted the session to be very relaxed, capturing the children very much as they are now, so with that in mind I followed along as they showed me their toys, snacks, snails and ants. The children spoke only in Swedish (and although I was taking lessons my swedish wasn't up to much) but of course being children this didn't matter and we spoke to each other about the things they were showing me. 

After an hour or so of play we stopped for afternoon tea and then got back to it, of course with 3 children, parents, and grandparents, we needed a fair amount of time but the whole session was so relaxed that I didn't even notice the hours flying by. The whole family made me feel so welcome and although the light was actually a bit tricky, a mixture of bright sunshine and then periods of cloud, we were all very pleased with the results. 

I'm absolutely thrilled that I was able to do a family photo shoot in such a beautiful location in Sweden, I hope you enjoy the images xox

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My Business Mentoring Session

One of my many new years resolutions this year was to become a full time family photographer and, after three years of it being just a hobby and passion, actually drive dinkyheart photography forward in to a business that can support me and my love for travel. The year began well as I redesigned the website and reassessed my goals and advertising strategy, but I soon realised that I would need some help, although I’m confident when it comes to photography and design I realised I was totally out of my depth when it comes to business, marketing and advertising and if I wanted to reach my goal of growing my business this year I would need some advice.

After a long search I came across Charlie, she’s a photographer, marketer and author, offering a mentoring programme for photographers in my position. After exchanging a few emails I met Charlie in the quaint and quirky hotel 131 in Cheltenham and after a coffee and a catch up we got to work. We discussed my reasons for becoming a photographer and the earlier influences that led to this point, my work at art college and landscape photography at uni, my time as a nursery teacher and ABA therapist for children with autism and of course the setting up of dinkyheart photography three years ago with my friend Kim. We discussed what inspires me and my life in general, what makes me happy, pulling together aspects of my life and business that I hadn’t even considered related or relevant. At this point I realised how essential all of this is in building my brand and marketing my product which essentially is myself, a family photographer. Next we moved on to the thing that I, strangely find most difficult, social media. Charlie explained the (in hindsight) quite obvious importance between my brand and my social media for, not only advertising myself and my services, but more importantly reaching out to my target audience (you) with relevant topics that both you and I find interesting. So with all of this in mind, Charlie set me more than twenty tasks to work on between now and our next session in two weeks, which of course I started on as soon as I got on the train home.

So now after what feels like a mix between a business mentoring and life coaching session I’m flying back to Stockholm totally inspired and motivated, with the beginnings of a new understanding of marketing, advertising and business in general. I’m super excited about the journey ahead and will keep you posted with my progress. But for now I’ll leave you to enjoy this sunny Sunday whilst I go shoot, tweet, Facebook and Instagram ;)

And because every post is better with a picture here are some beautiful locations that I've been scouting for photo sessions in and around Stockholm city xox

Beautiful baby Maya

Meet the beautiful baby Maya at a precious 4 months old! 

I arrived for the shoot whilst Maya was taking a nap and from the second she woke up she smiled and cooed at her mummy and daddy. With her beautiful eyes, huge smile and all that hair, she was a total dream.

See more pics from this shoot over on the Facebook page xox