I photographed this beautiful family three years ago, and one of the photos from that session quickly became one of my favourite shots that I've taken.  In fact, I use it on the front page of my website. 

So when they booked me again during the summer last year,  I already knew that I wanted to try and recreate that image with the same girl, three years on.  As it turned out, the parents had the same idea too.  And here it is, the before and after shot, isn't she stunning?

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This time there was a new addition to the family, another little sister and just as gorgeous as her two older siblings. 

The two older girls and I headed off upstairs when I arrived and spent a lot of time having fun running from one bedroom to another, singing songs, playing musical statues and generally being silly.  Then I spent some time with their baby sister who has the most gorgeous blue eyes that I've ever seen, before heading out into the garden for some more portraits.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable photography session and I couldn't be happier with how the images turned out.  

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A year ago I started photographing the contents of my then 7 year old son's pockets.  At the time I didn't think I'd still be photographing them a year later, but I became a little bit obsessed, and looked forward to seeing what gems I'd uncover when I turned out his pockets that evening.

Most of the time it was bits of litter that he'd picked up in the school playground, sometimes it was remnants of fabric from a school art class, and one time it was a couple of leaflets found in the cinema foyer with sketches of naked ladies on the cover.  Other times I turned out what seemed like an entire beach worth of pebbles and wondered how on earth he'd managed to cram them all in.

But it's probably the very first image, the one that started this whole project off that's my favourite.  A one stop shop into the mind of a 7 year old boy.  A few twigs, an empty packet of raisins, a piece of bark, a football card, a safety pin and the end of an old screw.

It's funny.  You wouldn't think that by looking at, what is essentially a load of litter, could provoke such lovely memories.  But they do. 

The BBC visitor pass reminds me of the day his dad took us on a tour of Radio 1 and of the pizza we had afterwards.  The old tag with the royal crest on was the day my mum and I took him on a brilliant tour of Buckingham Palace, the tags he saved were from a toy Corgie that his grandma bought for him which has had pride of place on his bed ever since.  The collection of autumn leaves were from a walk in the park, and of course those naked lady leaflets from a cinema party in East Finchley. 

Then there's the selection of Christmas present tags, one of which is from his grandad.  Little did we know back then that it would be our last Christmas together.  The punctured balloon reminds me of the hours spent playing tennis with it across the sofa in the living room and the selection of Match Attax cards takes me back to his oh-so-brief love affair with football. 

The packet of Smarties is a sad reminder of his grandad again who passed away a few weeks ago and who always had a stash of Smarties in his kitchen cupboard for him.  The Minion keyring was won for him by his cousin Sam during another fun holiday with the whole family at Centre Parcs.  The pink ticket is from a brilliant holiday to Lanzarote as are the red stones which he picked up during our tour of the volcano.  There's a small yellowy/brown stone towards the end which Lucas told me is a dragon's eye.  I love that stone.

So here it is, a year in the life of a 7 going on 8 year old's pockets, and a whole world of memories to go with it. 

I love this family. 

I've been photographing them since the big sister was born and it's been so lovely watching them grow up and change.  It's quite a privilege actually to be asked to document someone's children growing up and it's the bit about my job that I love the most.

It's hard to believe that this is the same girl as the newborn baby lying in her daddy's arms on my homepage - from brunette to blonde in a matter of months.

They're both full of energy and confidence which makes my job easy - it doesn't feel like work at all.  I especially love this first image, jumping on the bed. I think her face says it all.  I also love the expression on her brother's face in the following photo, such a little character.

You can see some of the other photo sessions I've done with these two HERE and HERE.  You can also see a few more from this shoot if you head to my Facebook page.

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