Blog – Page 3 – Madeline Littlejohns Photography

Jul

2019

How to survive new parenthood

Having a baby changes you life in pretty much every way. And I think no matter how much you read and prepare before the baby arrives, you’re still never really prepared for what life with a newborn is actually like.

So if you’re expecting a baby soon, or have recently become a parent (congratulations!), here are my words of advice on how to survive those first few months while you get used to your new life.

Lower your standards

Seriously. Even if your house is normally kept pristine and clean and tidy, just relax your standards for a bit.

Accept that you won’t be able to keep on top of everything for a while, and that’s ok.

Accept any and all offers of help

In the first few days and weeks with a newborn at home, accept every offer of help that is given to you.

Let people bring you a home-cooked meal that you can just heat up in the microwave. Let your mum take a load of dirty washing to do for you. When people come to visit let them make themselves (and you) a cup of tea.

Lower your standards some more

Seriously.

Prepare

If you’re reading this while still pregnant then take advantage of the time you have now to prepare for life once the baby arrives.

Batch-cook a few meals and put them in the freezer. Stock up on essentials, not just for the baby, but for you too. Things will be a bit easier with a newborn if you know there’s plenty of tea and biscuits in the house.

Focus on the first six weeks

I remember my sister telling me this when I first had my son. The first six weeks are generally the hardest as you all adjust to life with a new baby at home. If you can focus on getting through those six weeks, rather than worrying about getting through the next six months, it does make it easier to cope with.

Cry when you need to

Your hormones are all. over. the. place. when you’ve just had a baby, so just go with it.

If you need to cry, even if you’re not sure why, then do it.

Keep an eye on how you’re feeling though. The baby blues are really common in the first few weeks, but if after that you’re still really struggling then please do talk to your midwife, health visitor or GP about how you’re feeling.

Let go of your expectations

Before you have your first child you have all these plans and expectations of how things will be. Once your baby is here keep in mind that it’s ok to let all those expectations and plans go.

If your birth didn’t go to plan, that’s ok. Every experience of labour and birth is different, so things very rarely go the way we think they will when we write these birth plans. If you’re finding it hard to cope with how your birth went though, ask your health visitor if you can chat with someone about what happened so that you can work through it.

You might have always said that you would never co-sleep with your baby, or that you’d never give them a dummy. But know that it’s ok to change your mind on all of these things now that your baby is here.

Be kind to yourself

Don’t rush to get ‘back to normal’.

Keep wearing your maternity clothes.

Eat the cake.

Just soak it all in.

Embrace the 4th trimester

The first three months after a baby is born is often referred to as the 4th trimester. Your baby is getting used to life in the big wide world. So do what you can to ease them into it. Keep them close to you. Using a sling or a wrap to wear your baby is a great way to do this. And remember you can’t spoil your baby by holding them too much.

This too shall pass

Make this your mantra.

It feels like an eternity when you’re in the newborn trenches, but know that it will pass. It will get easier. You will get to know your baby. You will sleep again one day.

This too shall pass.

Hopefully these snippets of advice will help see you through the blur of those early days of parenthood.

I do have one more for you actually.

While you’re busy taking endless photos of your newborn, make sure you get in a few photos with them too. You might not feel like doing it, you might not want to when you don’t feel your best, but please do it anyway. See, it’s not really about you.

That baby in your arms will be all grown up one day, and they’ll be so grateful for photos of the two of you together.

So hand your camera over to someone else and let them take a few photos of you snuggling your new baby. You won’t regret it, I promise.

Jul

2019

Oasis business support – personal branding photography

How many hats do you wear as a small business owner or entrepreneur?

Not literal hats of course, unless you’ve managed to forge a career as a professional freelance hat wearer (in which case I need details, please).

I’m talking about the metaphorical hats that you need to wear when you work for yourself. Take blogging for example. You might think that would just be about writing great blog posts. But there are so many other elements involved if you want to make it your job. You have to be a photographer, a writer, a social media expert, a graphic designer, a PR expert, and so many other things.

Whatever your business is, there will most likely come a point when you need some help to get everything done. Or a fresh pair of eyes to look over everything and help you figure out how to move your business forward.

That’s where Oasis business support comes in.

They’re a Swansea based business who offer a huge range of services to help entrepreneurs and small business owners save time, make changes, and grow. The brains behind all this is Heidi, a good friend of mine who, lucky for me, wanted some personal brand photos to use on her website and social media pages.

Heidi mainly wanted lifestyle portraits of her at work, and some relaxed headshots, and had the brilliant idea of heading to The Hive co-working space to take them.

The Hive is tucked away in the Uplands, Swansea and is a bit of a hidden gem for anyone looking for a place to work that’s not their living room or a coffee shop. The atmosphere there was really welcoming and the decor was just perfect for what Heidi wanted from her personal brand photos.

We took some photos of Heidi working on her phone and her laptop in the open-plan area downstairs at The Hive, and some at the tables outside too.

Now, I’m well aware that you might feel a bit silly pretending to work or talk on the phone for photos, but my advice is to sort of lean into the silliness of it.

Those laughs and smiles that come when you acknowledge that it is quite silly to act as if you’re on the phone produce some really lovely, natural looking photos.

And I tend to keep chatting away anyway, asking questions, generally nattering nonsense while I shoot, which makes the whole process more relaxed and much easier for the person in front of the camera.

To go with these ‘at work’ photos we also took some relaxed portraits and head shots for Heidi to use on her website and on social media.

There was a lovely leather sofa in the window at The Hive that was perfect for these informal shots of Heidi relaxing with a cup of tea. I love how Heidi chose to keep things quite simple for her session, and decided to just have a couple of props to use. I think all we used was her phone, laptop and this cream mug.

This simplicity is spot on for her business, which is all about making life more simple for other business owners.

If you’re thinking of having a personal branding photography session with me in Swansea, then one of the things we’ll talk about is what props you might like to use and include in your photos. For some businesses having lots of bright and funky props and accessories to play around with would work perfectly.

Other times, like with Oasis business support, it’s better to keep things clean and simple.

These are the kinds of things I’ll ask you about when we first start planning a session, to really make sure that your personal branding photos capture you, your personality and your brand.

If you’d like to find out more about Oasis business support and what they can do for you and your business then you can find them at www.oasis-support.co.uk.

Interested in getting some personal brand photographs for your business? I’d love to hear from you, so please do get in touch and tell me a bit about yourself and the sort of photos you’re interested in.

Jul

2019

Your everyday life is anything but boring

When you’re thinking about booking a photo session for your family you have a few options.

You can go to a studio and get some beautiful photos of what you all look like. Or you can book a lifestyle/documentary session and get photos of what your life looks like. The fear with the second option though, is that your everyday life isn’t interesting enough. You worry that your regular routines of hanging out at home and playing at the park are too boring to include in a photo session.

So let me help you put that fear to rest.

Your everyday life with all its mundane routines and perfect imperfections is anything but boring.

It’s beautiful.

It’s magical.

It’s full of love and laughter and tears and all those other things that make life what it is.

I know that it can seem that your life isn’t all that exciting or photo-worthy when you take a quick glance at it.

But trust me, when you stop and really look around there is so much in your day to day life that is absolutely worthy of photographing. Your Saturday morning trip to the park might be such a standard part of your family’s routine that it doesn’t seem like something you need to document with photographs.

There are so many parts of this routine that are worth capturing though.

All the little things you do on autopilot.

Strapping your toddler into their car-seat or the buggy. Little hands opening up the gate into the park. The view from behind the swings as you push them higher and higher. The look of uncertainty on your child’s face as they think about sliding down the fireman’s pole. Little feet disappearing out of sight as they climb up to the slide.

These things are so much a part of your life right now that maybe you can’t see how magical they really are.

But trust me, these are the things you’ll miss one day. You’ll look back and realise how far from boring this routine was. How beautiful is was to be there, to watch your children play, and explore, and learn.

My children are 8 and 5 now, so we’re well out of the toddler years with them.

It’s funny though, that now I look back at when they were younger I can see all these little things that were so routine back then that I wish I had thought to capture. And, luckily, so many other details and moments that I did record.

But when I take a quick glance around at our life as it is right now, with its school day routine and now-familiar new rhythms, it can seem a bit boring.

Then I take a bit of time. I stop and think about the details that make our life as it is right now. The things that will change and disappear with time.

And then I see it.

The beauty. The magic.

It’s in the filthy fingernails at the end of a long day at school. It’s in the wildness of afterschool playtime in the woods. It’s in the quietness of reading together before bed.

The tricky thing with life is that when you’re caught up in it you can’t always see the beauty in it.

When you do the same things day in day out it feels like life will always be this way. You don’t realise how the rhythms and routines of your family life will change until one day you look around and realise everything is different.

All of a sudden your baby is a toddler. Then you blink and they’re heading off to school.

The landscape of your life has changed and it’s quite often only then that you appreciate how much beauty there was in the stage that you’ve now moved on from.

So please, if you think your family life is too boring for a documentary family photo session, think again.

Look around at your life. Look at the details that make it what it is. Think about all those little things that will shift and change over the next few years.

Those are the memories you’ll want to hold on to.

Those details are absolutely worth photographing, because they’re the things that will take you right back in time to this moment when you look back on them.

This is what your life looks like right now and it is beautiful.

Jul

2019

Why you absolutely need personal brand photography for your business

I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you’re reading this because you’re trying to decide whether to have personal brand photos taken for your business or not.

You might be a small business owner, an entrepreneur, a creative, a blogger. Whatever it is that you do though, you’re getting more and more aware of the fact that you need to be more visible on your website and on social media.

The question is, do you really need to go all out and book a personal branding session? Keep reading for all the reasons I think the answer to that question is absolutely yes.

To connect with people faster

Humans are visual creatures.

In fact 90% of the information that’s sent to our brains is visual. And we process images 60,000 times faster than text.

Sixty. Thousand. Times. Faster.

Just let that sink in for a second.

Your clients can see a photo of you on your Facebook page and gather so much more information about you, so much more quickly, than if they were to sit and read a post from you about who you are and why you do what you do.

To build the ‘know, like, trust’ factor

If you’ve done any research at all into marketing your business then chances are you’ve heard of this before.

For people to buy from you or use your services you need to find ways for them to get to know, like, and trust you first.

Sharing photographs of yourself, include behind the scenes photos, is a great way to let people get to feel like they know you relatively quickly. And if you also share photos that let these people into your life and show your personality, then you’re on to a winner.

To be more relatable

Part of building this ‘know, like, trust’ factor is showing yourself as someone that your dream customers can relate to.

Using personal photos gets people to relate to you and your content on a more emotional level. And when this happens they start to form a bond with your brand, and increases your likeability factor.

When you can get people to feel something with your content you’ll start to increase the chances that they’ll buy from you.

Studies have shown that emotions play a big role in our buying decisions. We tend to go on our emotions more than cold hard facts when we evaluate brands. Research has shown that it’s our emotional response to an advert that makes us more or less likely to buy a product, not the content of the advert itself.

To save you time and reduce stress

How much time do you spend searching on stock photo websites for the perfect photo to use on your social media pages?

I’m guessing it’s quite a bit.

Then there’s the stress of knowing that you should be posting consistently on Facebook and Instagram but you just don’t know what to share each day.

Having a bank of professional, personalised pictures from your personal branding session will cut so much of this stress out of your working week. You’ll have all these images on hand, ready to go when you need them.

To be prepared

You never know when you’ll need a decent photo of yourself.

Maybe an amazing PR or media opportunity comes up. Think how great it would be to have a professional headshot ready to hand over, instead of desperately searching through your phone for a semi-decent selfie!

With a bank of photos from a personal branding session you’ll also always be prepared with something to share on social media. Being consistent with social media is so important, but in a recent study 34.8% of marketers said that producing engaging visuals consistently was their biggest struggle.

Creating this kind of visual content is so much easier when you have a set of on-brand photos ready and waiting to choose from.

To stand out from the crowd

A report from 2018 found that only 30% of marketers were creating their own visuals. So that means a whole lot of other businesses are using generic stock images in their marketing and social media posts.

Using photos that are uniquely yours from a personal branding photography session will really help you and your business show up and stand out.

To help your clients and customers more

Using images in your content gives so much more value to the people who read it.

Studies have shown that when we hear information we only remember about 10% of it 3 days later. But when that information is presented with a relevant image then we retain 65% of that information.

It’s also been found that people following instructions with both text and illustrations do 323% better at the task than people who are just given written instructions.

So if you write blog posts or post anything on social media with the aim of educating and helping your customers, then including photos will benefit you and them.

To reach more people

Social media is pretty much all about visuals.

And using personalised photos in your social media posts can help you massively increase your reach and your engagement levels.

Here are some quick facts on this:

Tweets with images get 150% more retweets than those without images
Facebook posts with images tend to get 2.3 times the engagement of those without images
Blog posts and articles that have an image every 75-100 words are shared twice as much on social media than those with fewer images

So, are you convinced yet?

If you’re ready to get more visible in your business and want to save yourself the time and stress of trying to do it all by yourself, then booking a personal branding photo session should be top of your to-do list.

And if you’d like to have a chat about a personal branding photography session in Swansea then please do get in touch – I’d love to get to know you and your business!

Jul

2019

July 2019 – 10 on 10

At bedtime the other day Rhys asked me, seemingly randomly, what the date was.

Turns out he wanted to know if it was the 10th the next day so that he could be ready to let me take his photo for this project in the morning. See, last month I took a photo of Nerys when she’d just woken up to kick off the 10 on 10 project for June.

Rhys was a bit put out that I’d taken this picture of her, and not of him. So he’d been waiting all month for the 10th to come round again so I could get a shot of him in bed, first thing in the morning, too.

So that’s the photo that I started the day with this month; and here it is along with the others:

Life on the 10th July brought us:

Almost-end-of-term tiredness in the mornings
Lunchboxes packed up ready for school
Warm weather perfect for getting the washing on the line to dry
Time to hang out with friends in the yard and the woods after school
Ice lolly treats after dinner

Something about the end of the school year has really got me this year.

I think it’s because a few of my friends have got children leaving primary school this year and it’s made me so aware of how quickly the time passes. All of a sudden those primary school days are over, and with them go all of the routines that have been the rhythm of life for so many years.

I’ve still got a few more years yet before I have to get my head around my own children moving on to secondary school but it still makes my heart ache a bit when I think about them moving up another year in September.

How do you feel about the school year coming to an end?

Jun

2019

7 activity ideas for your family photo session this summer

I think it’s safe to say that summer has arrived.

The school holidays are just around the corner and we’re looking forward to trips to the beach and the park as well as plenty of time just hanging out at home.

If you’re thinking of booking a family photo session in Swansea this summer, you might be wondering what to do during your session. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered! Here are seven activity ideas for your family photo session this summer.

Fly a kite

The weather conditions on the coast along Swansea bay are quite often just right for kite flying.

If you want to make more of an activity of it you can let the children make their own kites to try and fly. Or have some fun with kite-themed arts and crafts at home.

Go to the park

There are so many parks on our doorstep here in Swansea and they’re a great place to go with the family for a relaxed photo session.

Brynmill park gives you various options for activities from playing on the swings, to feeding the ducks, to balancing on the wall on the way round to the kiosk. When you have young children it can feel like you spend half your life at the local park, so it makes sense to capture this stage of your life there!

Head to the beach

Make the most of the warm weather and let the children paddle in the sea.

Build sandcastles, dig holes, then try and get the little ones to sit still long enough to have a bite to eat!

Pack a picnic

Grab a blanket and basket full of sandwiches and cakes and head out for a family picnic.

You could do this in the park, at the beach, or in your back garden. And if it rains you can even do this on the living room floor.

Hang out at home

If you would rather stay at home for your photo session there are all sorts of things you could do there.

Bring out the bubbles, get arty with some pavement chalks in the garden, or play some garden games. Giant jenga anyone?!

Cool down in the water

Go for a paddle in the sea or let the kids splash around at Blackpill Lido.

Or have fun with water at home. You can get the trusty paddling pool out, have a big waterfight (just keep me out of it!) or take care of the garden with the hose or a watering can.

Go out for ice cream

Take the family out for a classic Joe’s ice cream. Or have a walk in Mumbles ending with a cone from Verdi’s.

If you’re feeling creative then gather up some fun toppings and make ice cream sundaes together at home. Sprinkles and strawberry sauce are great ingredients for colourful family photos!

Keep cool in the woods

If you want to head out somewhere for your photo session but want to avoid the summer heat a bit then the woods are a great option.

Clyne woods is great for exploring, wandering down plant-lined pathways, relaxing in patches of open woodland, and splashing stones into streams and pools. And if you wander enough you’ll come out by the playground where the children can climb and swing and slide.

If none of these ideas jump out at you, then take a bit of time to think about what you and your family love to get up to in the summer months.

What do you love to do all together, and where do you most like to spend your time?

I can help you out with this if you’d like to have a session but aren’t really sure what to do for it. Just get in touch!