I Love Bread & Jam { Part One }

Creativity and business … they should go hand in had but rarely do. In any business it is very easy to get stuck in a routine of offering the same service or product because, after all that’s what your customers want, right? It’s safe. That’s what sells.

This way of thinking has not sat well with me of late. Is it right to accept that all customers don't want anything different? Just a few years ago it was the norm that all you could expect from a children’s photo session was a white backdrop in a high street studio. Fashions and tastes changed and many photographers (including myself) started to offer a more natural approach. For me as the owner of a small creative business it is important not to stand still; I want to offer my customers variety. Something new. A choice. Don’t get me wrong – I love nothing more than the simplicity of getting out there with just a bunch of kids and my camera, capturing the natural character and simple joy of childhood. I’m good at it (nothing wrong about blowing your own trumpet now and again!) and the feedback from my customers is nothing other than positive. I do, however aim to constantly stay fresh in what is becoming an increasingly competitive market.

This was the motivation for my latest project - to produce images that were a little different from the norm. I wanted to be really challenged. My inspiration was fashion; you know the kinds of images you might see in Junior Magazine or in boutique stores. I wanted to use my creative skills and my many years of experience of working with children to try something just a little different – but I couldn’t do this alone.

That’s when I found these FANTASTIC dresses from I Love Bread & Jam. They were different, like my idea. Using the most unique fabric designs, they offer an innocent quirkiness whilst retaining the wholesome goodness of childhood – totally perfect! Luckily the wonderful ladies at Bread & Jam were on my wavelength and loved my portfolio. A little bit of email tennis and behold – a bundle of ten beautiful dresses landed on my doorstep!

I have been so lucky to forge a relationship with a wonderful stylist, Lorna Sylvester Walton. She has the most amazing creative eye and just gets me (this is rare!). She’s the kind of person who puts things together that shouldn’t work but do, sickening hey? Just check out her tree and you’ll understand – pure genius.

This is the first of two posts with images from session one as there are so many to choose from. The girls were all so great!

Lorna and I will be working together on this project of 3 shoots in total; all with very different styling and over all feel. We also hope to work together in the future to offer styling on customer sessions but that’s a whole other blog post – watch this space!

A big thank you to Bread & Jam, Lorna, all of the girls, the mums and dads and The Art Department in Penarth for providing a great location for shoot one.

Thank you for indulging me in this post and I apologise for the wordiness. I really hope you like the results. I’d love to hear from you so please feel free to leave your comments and feedback below – it means a lot to me.

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I Love Bread and Jam on Facebook.