These beauties come in a 8.5″x8.5″ size which is just right for a collection of family pictures, and would sit nicely on any shelf or a side table. You have a choice of plain paper cover in a number of vibrant colours (with or without a photo plaque) or a custom photographic cover with your family photographs.

These portrait books lie completely flat with an almost invisible seam, allowing for full page spreads, like the one below.

There’s also a choice between recycled matt (like in this sample – and I love it) or lustre paper, and you can have as little as 10 pages or as many as 60. Plus, they are really affordable – please get in touch with me for full pricing information.

Yes, just a few.

The mentoring session has been great and I picked up a lot of great tips. But the most important thing I took away with me at the end of the day was… the realisation that highly posed newborn photography that is so popular right now is not something I really enjoy creating! For me, it’s more about the interaction between the new parents and their bundle of joy, the detail shots of baby’s hands, legs and hair, and only a handful of naturally posed photographs.

Here are just a few of the images from the mentoring session – the ones I enjoyed creating the most and would be happy to recreate during my own newborn photo sessions.

Tip 1: Don’t

Yep, don’t. It is very tiring – for you and the baby. Alex didn’t understand what was going on, why are we spending one night at home and another at a stranger’s place (more on that below), why is he not allowed to walk and play downstairs, and why do we have to stay in the bedroom in the evening, with the door shut, 2 hours before the bedtime while daddy is working downstairs.

So in the ideal world, do the house up before the baby arrives, or wait until they are a bit older and can understand what’s going on. To say it’s not much fun is an understatement of the year.

Tip 2: Plan, plan, plan, and then allow even more time

On average, things take twice longer than you think they will. We planned that 2 weekends and some weekday evenings will be enough to finish it all off, but it wasn’t. Parents with a small baby are already tired as it is, so there’s only so much more energy you will have left for redecorating.

We also planned to start the process a little earlier, before my busiest time of the year hits, but for various reasons had to delay it by about 3 weeks. So there I was, with shoots and meetings happening, a half-finished house and an unsettled baby.

Tip 3: Most importantly, go away.

Go to your parents’ place. Rent a hotel room or a serviced apartment. Ask friends if you could stay over. Go on holiday. Just go away.

And do not come back until the work is completed. The worst thing you can do is disrupt the baby’s world by going back and forth between the house that’s being redecorated and wherever you’re staying – and that’s exactly what I ended up doing!

Alex was so happy to come back to his house after our trip to Russia, and it melted my heart when he hugged his pillow and fell asleep in his cot with a happy smile on his face. Unfortunately, since the house was nowhere near ready, the very next day our gypsy life started with me having to leave him with one friend while I went to client meetings and my husband had to get on with the redecoration, and then spend the night with him at another friend’s place, all the while travelling up and down the M25 as unfortunately everyone that was able to help out at short notice lives miles away.

It broke my heart to see him this way and I couldn’t wait for it all to be over.

After about a week of staying with friends, our life was back to normal (-ish) as the work was finally complete. Phew! Now we just needed to tidy things up and arrange books on the bookshelves… which we are still in the process of doing, nearly a month on :)

This adorable family were complete superstars and I really enjoyed getting to know them in the short period of time that we had, and taking photographs of the little Maya, exploring the park with her – and learning new tricks for getting a toddler to do what I wanted her to do for my photographs! We were really lucky having a gorgeous daffodils display and beautiful apple blossom right next to each other, and I will be definitely returning to this spot next Spring.

Despite this, I think we got some adorable images – well his mum is definitely pleased!

Want to be the first to know about the next time I’m holding mini-sessions? Just drop me a line and I’ll make sure you’re on the priority list.

As a photographer (and a perfectionist), I tend to not want to carry my camera with me wherever I go, because I know that I will then take me ages to sort through the images and process them properly. But of course I want to capture all those everyday moments and my son growing up! Add to this family and friends spread around the world and wanting to keep them in the loop of our daily adventures, and having an iPhone with Instagram in my pocket has become the best way to take and share our daily snaps.

If you’re on Instagram, follow me – I’d love to connect. My username on there in @antonina (yeah, original, I know!).

Here’s a selection of last week’s (and a bit) photos.

(P.S. The very first picture was actually taken by my son’s childminder and emailed to me. He does smile for her pictures – typical, isn’t it?)

I have finally got to look at some photos I took when visiting my family in Russia in August last year. Alex was 6 months old and it was the first time he met all of his family.

Meet my nan. She absolutely hates being photographed, she doesn’t like that she is old and wrinkly, but I insist. I love her face.

And here’s my mum with her grandson.

Hope you enjoyed looking.

I don’t feel I am 32 at all. More like 10, at times :)

Having done that (and survived), I thought I’d share some tips that I gathered along the way.

Essential gear for flying alone with the baby

• one hand fold buggy & a buggy bag
• spacious nappy changing bag to take on board
• vacuum space saving bags (so you can fit everything into one suitcase)
• a smart phone loaded with baby apps and cartoons
• a book or other toy to entertain baby during take off and landing when phones are not allowed
• separate small across the body or a waist bag for your purse and passports, for easy access and for carrying on you at all times

Last year we travelled with our Stokke Xplory buggy and frankly, it was not the easiest thing to do, as it is very bulky, heavy and requires two people (one to hold the baby while the other deals with the pushchair). So this time I was looking for the umbrella and one hand fold strollers, and bought Baby Jogger City Mini specifically for travel (and also for keeping it in the boot of the car back home, as well as to allow for the growing toddler, as it’s a buggy that has weight capacity of up to 22kg/50lb).

Travelling alone also means you don’t have the luxury of multiple suitcases and everything has to be packed tight into one medium size one. I knew I could do just with a couple of items of clothes, but the baby had to have lots and lots more, so vacuum space saving bags came in handy (you can buy them on Amazon, eBay or at IKEA, just make sure they are the right size for your suitcase).

Purchase a second seat

Unless you have a really short flight, purchase a second seat for your toddler, even if they are under two. This saved my sanity as Alex could sit in it and sleep in it, and I also had space to put all the toys and books while he was on my lap.

Don’t forget

• water or juice
• baby food (I brought a stash of Ella’s Kitchen pouches and Organix Multigrain Hearts which Alex loves, and it contributed to another peaceful 15 minutes while he was munching away).
• baby’s birth certificate
• a letter of consent for travel from another parent, if you are travelling to countries that may require it (so find out in advance)

Consider the size and layout of the airport

Planning in advance really helps. I flew out of Heathrow’s Terminal 5 and I knew I needed a buggy to navigate it’s huge departure lounges. On the way back, however, departing from St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport (LED), I checked the buggy in straight away, as the airport is fairly small and is only equipped with escalators and not lifts, so having a buggy to deal with would have been a nightmare.

Tire them out  

It is not always possible to book flights to coincide with baby’s naptimes, so try to move things around slightly to tire them out if you can. Once through the security, park up the buggy and let the baby walk or crawl for at least 30 mins to tire them out, and be in for a better chance of them falling asleep on the plane.

On our outbound flight, I was really lucky as it was around Alex’s morning nap, and we had plenty of time to walk around the airport to tire him out, so he slept for 2 hours on the plane. On the way back, however, we were stuck at passport control forever, which wound him up quite a bit, then were really rushed and did not have time to walk around, it was the evening so he was tired but over-excited and could not sleep. Add some very noisy school children on the plane, and I’ve had a rather difficult 3.5 hours!

Have a safe journey!