When my family asked what I wanted for Christmas or my Birthday this year, I honestly had no clue what to say.

I had no desire for anything of material value and my ideal present (a mini break to a new place) clearly wasn’t on the cards with Covid. Nevertheless, my Grandad insisted that I chose some form of gift.

So… approximately six months later, I managed to put my finger on it.

As a photographer, I spend most of my time behind the lens. Yet, as you can imagine, I absolutely treasure our own family photos. I therefore decided that the perfect gift would be to have a family photo session (cue husband’s slight annoyance at yet more photos).

We decided to split the day into two, with a family session in the morning which captured gorgeous portraits of my 91-year old Grandad, Mother, Father and Clem at the family home.

We then had a change of outfit and drove to one of my favourite places in the world and somewhere you can often find me on weekends… the Shropshire Hills. Here, Clem and I had a relaxed session to celebrate our two-year wedding anniversary. Naturally, Margot played a starring role throughout the afternoon.

For now, I want to keep the morning private while I make my family a gorgeous album, but here are some highlights from our anniversary session.

Clem’s one request was that we walked to his favourite spot in the whole area. We may have underestimated the distance and time it would take.

Approximately one hour later (and yes, I had trainers with me), we arrived at the stunning rock formation that hovers over a natural stream.

We do have BTS videos of us all slipping and sliding down the hills dodging sheep muck as we went, but it would somewhat ruin the aesthetic.

The main thing is that we got there just as the evening sun started to peak through the clouds.

And after all that walking, it was time for another one of our favourite things… a good bottle of ice cold champagne!

A huge thank you to my lovely and incredibly talented friend, Inna, aka And Your Story Photography.

She shot the session on a mixture of her Contax 645 using Fuji 400h combined with digital shots captured on a Sony A7III.