Ethel & Mabel

Ethel and her sister Mabel, have such a sense of old world charm and style. I started documenting their life, (well actually at the time it was just Ethel), back in early 2015. I’d heard Ethel liked a cup of tea, and I wanted to record a Saturday morning with her at her house. If you’ve been following my new project on Instagram, I guess she was my first Tea For Two! And then, a year later, Mabel came into the world. Spending a morning with them was the first step into filmmaking for me, and the film I made still has such a special place in my heart. Roll on three years, and I went back up to document their morning together recently. I hope they’ll cherish these photos of them in their childhood home as much as I’ve loved documenting their life there. My style and edit choices might have changed a bit, but the sentiment remains the same. Here’s Ethel and Mabel, a story in mornings, so far.

It starts with Ethel. When I first arrived at her house, she took me by the hand, sat me down, and started to recount stories about her summer holiday. Her morning unfolded - reading books, dunking buttery biscuits into steaming cups of tea, all to the soundtrack of Saturday morning tunes on the record player.  

And then, along came Mabel….

And our latest shoot together…

This is what we love about our portrait shoots, documenting these moments in life that may feel insignificant at the time, but looking back, are so poignant.  Beauty in the small things, beauty in the everyday.

If you’d like us to document your family life, we’ve just added some new packages. If you’d like to take a look, just click on the photo link below. We’d love to tell your story.

This Family Life - Rowan

It's In The Look.

When  Rowan's Mum was booking this shoot, we had the most lovely email from her. In it she wrote; 'It's just occurring to me how much I want to capture the magic and wonder in Rowan's eyes, and the way she looks at us.'' Rowan is one of life's adventurers, and between the exploring, frog tickling and flower picking she did on her shoot, there were those beautiful moments where she was just looking with wide smiley eyes at her Mum and Dad. Here's Rowan's shoot...

After our shoot together, Rowan's Mum left such kind words on our Facebook page. We always feel a bit funny about sharing this stuff, but these words just summed up why we do what we do; 'Sarah beautifully captured a time in our lives we will treasure. From our first enquiry to collecting our photographic prints, Sarah and Suzi have been a joy to work with. They both have a natural gift to put children at ease. Our daughter adores them. We couldn’t have been happier with the images and really appreciated the time Suzi took to advise us on our products. Until the next time, for I have a sneaking suspicion there will be many more, thank you both'.

As we are waiting for our own little one to arrive, we are slowing down on our family shoots and starting again in September. As we head into the first wave of autumn, if you'd like to book a shoot for your leaf kickers and light catchers, please do let us know.

Life on the Stairs

When I arrive for a family shoot at home, I always have a little walk round to peek at the light. More often than not, it's spilling onto the staircase. You can almost hear the feet over the past few years. The rushings to school with half done laces, the slow procrastinating walk to bed, parents hollering from the first step that 'tea's on the table'. The patter of pets, carpet worn, and piles of things to take up. Staircases see a lot of life, they're a good spot for a photo.

I took the photo below the other day as first light crept into our house. 

I saw moments ahead of us around life on the stairs. In a few weeks, we'll be bringing our baby bean home and gently walking up the stairs for our first night together at home. Up for baths and down to welcome visitors. In a few years, tiny hands holding onto those spindles as first steps are made. Bum shuffles down them, school bags left at the bottom, winter jacket hood hooked over the bannister. Excited feet racing down on Christmas Day morning, a hug on the landing and a moment to stroke the cat on his favourite middle step. Moments to look at the photos hanging on the wall on the way up, and moments to look in the mirror on the way down. In this moment, I saw life on these stairs.