It’s your baby’s first birthday coming up and what a year it has been! Firstly, congratulations for surviving! My youngest has just recently turned one so I know what a brilliant feeling it is to know that you’ve got them to their first milestone and handled the various hurdles that having a new baby brings along the way. The back breaking leaning over the cot as you rock your baby to sleep for the 67th sleepless night in a row, the delightful weaning process of having every pair of trousers you own caked in baby mush, the protecting them from eating the cat food for the 17th time, and for putting up with singing wind the bobbin up more times than you care to remember (I’m not even going to start on the cracked nipples and breastfeeding ordeals)! It’s a real whirlwind of emotions as you realise that they are now leaving that baby stage behind and you’re faced with a proper little person. It’s often only now that you realise not only how far you’ve come, but how far they have come. They look so much bigger, so much older!

You’ve probably been capturing them on camera as they’ve grown and developed over the last year (either yourself or professionally), and at one year their characters are really shining and it is such a wonderful point in time to capture their little personalities before they get that little bit bigger (and less compliant – you’ve heard of the terrible 2’s right?!)

So you start browsing the web and you will be inundated with cake smash photos. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love a slice of cake as much as the next person (as my expanding waistline can testify!) but for me, I like to capture something a little more classic for a first birthday photoshoot. For me, first birthday photos should be fun, but also beautiful and timeless. Now im not saying that they should just sit on the floor and say cheese. No no – where’s the fun in that?! My prop of choice for birthdays is balloons! Now – you tell me – what child do you know that doesn’t like a balloon – and better still – a giant one?! Not only do they provide amazement and delight for the little ones, but they make the most stunning pieces of art work for you. It’s a win win!

If balloons aren’t your thing there’s plenty of other props and ideas that we can use to make their birthday portrait a little bit special. Other photosessions have involved beautiful vingtage styled props in a fine art photosession, teepees, red indian dress up sessions, and teddybear’s picnics. There are lots of ways to get creative so don’t just stop at a cake smash. Take a look at what’s out there and make it something unique and special. After all, they only turn 1 once!

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