children photography - Victoria Ashman Photography

14/08/201914/03/2024

Oh life…

So, I thought I’d should give a progress report. I am better, but life is still challenging and unfortunately for me it’s painful the majority of the time.

I thought the best way to show you a glimpse into my life would be to write about a typical day. I wake up at 7.30, have breakfast and then get onto dialysis just before 8. When its not painful I can be off dialysis and clearing up at about 8.30. When its painful, its a very slow drain and takes me up to an hour. The pain is due to endometriosis in my peritoneum, which is where the dialysis fluid cleans my blood. When I drain I feel like it starts to rip at my insides. The only way I can get through it is to burn myself with a hot water bottle. I think my stomach is now permanently scarred.

After the first dialysis is finished I go and have a shower. I have a dressing where the tube comes out of my stomach. If this gets wet at any time you have to take down the dressing, clean the area and then redress it. Changing the dressing takes me about another 20 minutes or so. So, by the time I am dressed its about 9.30. I have three hours now before the next dialysis. If I’m well I get on the computer and so some photoshop work, After the lunch time dialysis, I make a kidney friendly lunch and then pretty much have to sit down, I normally have a nap at this point, as I just can’t stay awake.

I do some more work (if I’m well enough) or a couple of times a week my Mum and Dad come and get me just to get me out. At 5 I get back on dialysis. Once that is finished I have my evening and I try and get out for a walk with Darren. I’ve found that some walking each day helps me with the pain. At about 10 I do my last dialysis of the day and then fall into bed.

If the dialysis isn’t painful its a gruelling part of my life, but its manageable. But if its painful my days are awful and some days I don’t know if I’ve got the strength to do it. Invariably though I somehow keep finding that strength, and I move through it. In a months time I would have been waiting for a transplant for three years. To not be tethered to dialysis just to keep me alive, well as you can see that would just be life changing.

On a photography note, I am still practising with my camera and my nieces are guinea pigs, luckily for me. Here are a couple of pictures I’ve taken recently, next mini shoot is with Kara… not that she knows it yet.

06/10/201714/03/2024

Timelapse Video, newborn shoot, youtube

Timelapse Video, newborn shoot, youtube

So, I made a timelapse video of one of my newborn shoots. It’s funny seeing me on the video! But I wanted to give an idea of how it looks during the shoot. You can see me shooting away and you can then (at the end) see the finished pictures.

Timelapse video, newborn shoot, youtube…

My newborn shoots take a fair amount of time, primarily because I wait until the little one is comfortable before posing. I work around them and as I don’t have an assistant I always have Mum or Dad helping me. This is nice for two reasons, I know that I can step back and take a photograph as they are in the safest hands possible. It also includes the parents in the shoot and the pictures we achieve from that shoot.

21/09/201714/03/2024

Sebastian’s Newborn Photo Shoot

I have photographed the lovely Osment family for the past four years. Their first shoot was a newborn shoot with their daughter Amelie. Sebastian is their newest arrival and I have just had the pleasure of shooting Sebastian’s newborn photo shoot. Sebastian was born early, so his shoot was much later than usual. But he still really looked like a newborn. He was very sensitive and just wanted to be with his Mum, so it was a challenging shoot. I took my time and we still got some beautiful pictures. His sister Amelie just wanted to cuddle and look after her baby brother and amazes me with her posing – she just seems to pose herself. This image below with Amelie and Sebastian was not engineered by me. I had to be quick though, as Amelie just wanted to hold Sebastian and was a bit overzealous . Sibling and newborn images are generally the most stressful part of the shoot… and sometimes toddlers flat out refuse to get into a picture with their newborn brother or sister. I try every trick in the book and the majority of the time I can get the shot. In this instance though Amelie wanted to be in every picture!

After the sibling images I began the individual pictures, the first blanket we used was sentimental and belonged to the Osments. They’ve had this blanket since Amelie was born and I always like to use an item that is special to the family. This is the picture that went on the thank you cards that went out to the Osment’s friends and family.

I used this fur in Amelie’s first shoot so wanted to have some continuity, this was also where I could get a good feet shot..

In Amelie’s shoot there is a picture where Amelie is in this basket with this fur and she is looking off to the side and she is looking at her Dad. In this picture Sebastian is looking off to the side and he is looking at his Mum. I love that.

Samantha brought a little outfit and we got some side pose pictures whilst he was in this outfit. I wasn’t sure if we could get this side pose as he was that much older and usually they don’t find it comfortable. But he soon settled and look very relaxed in this pose. If I see that a little one doesn’t like the pose I will take them straight out and find a position that makes sure they are comfortable.

Of course I had to get some pictures of Amelie on her own. These teddie were both bought when Sebastian was born. Sebastian’s teddy is the one facing the background and Amelie’s teddy is looking at her whilst she is looking at me. I got a similar shot when Amelie was 6 months old.

Finally I wanted to share this picture with Mum, Amelie and Sebastian. Sebastian looks so relaxed in Mum’s arms and I adore this picture. I just see complete happiness and a tenderness from Amelie. A lovely end to Sebastian’s newborn photo shoot.

28/06/2017

Newborn Shoots & (possibly) a model call

Newborn Shoots

So, for the last six months I have mostly been photographing newborn shoots. Luckily for me! as I love photographing newborns. It’s such a precious time for my clients and truly so wonderful to be able to capture this special time. Each year I feel I add to my skills and improve them. Above all it takes patience and calm and following the cues of the baby. This area of my business continues to be strong. I think its because newborn shoots are not about simply clicking the shutter. It takes time. I’ve photographed a fair few photographer’s babies and they tell me that they tried but newborn photography wasn’t in their skill set.

I have been posting far fewer pictures on Facebook though, partly because my clients ask for privacy which I completely respect. If a client asks me to post to social media then of course I am more than happy to oblige. I mainly use Facebook now for news or for offers. For example, every year I offer a model shoot. I am hoping to do a model shoot in August. The pictures I take in model newborn shoots are used to update my website, or to try some poses that I would like to master – but don’t want to do so on my paying clients time.

Digital Backdrops

I am also still adding to my catalogue of digital backdrops. there are twenty or so at the moment. I have added a gallery to my website where you can try some of my backdrops (small images) for free before you buy! If you go this gallery http://victoriaashman.zenfolio.com/p259041982 Click on the picture that has ‘Aura Digital Backdrops’ written on it and then click ‘menu’ by hovering over top left of the picture, you can then click download. If you go back to the gallery the picture next to it is an example of what you can do with the image, and the third image is the high resolution download, which you can download and pay for through my website.

Here is a little video with a few of the backdrops that I have on offer. It includes some instructions on how to use them. I sell them at my etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/AuraDigitalBackdrops

08/03/201730/03/2017

Freya & Jake’s outdoor photography shoot.

Freya & Jake’s outdoor photography shoot

Wonderfully, I got to spend some time with Freya and Jake at their outdoor shoot a couple of weeks ago. As always I love seeing the kids running free, (though I do find it hard to keep up!). We were just in a hotel garden and I found a lovely tree, some nice hedgerows and a bench. It gave us some wonderful backgrounds. The lighting was soft, with no harsh shadows and I was able to shoot these photographs.

I love this shot of Freya, I used the hedgerow as a backdrop which gave us a solid dark colour behind. This helped the glitter to really pop. Freya also had fun, and by the end of the shoot was telling me poses to try! It’s always lovely when the children get that engaged with the shoot.

Beautiful Jake, I look at this shot and I wonder what he is thinking. He has been through a lot in the last year, so I was more tentative when taking pictures of him, letting him come to me. I’ve photographed him since a baby and actually he was quite shy in his shoot then. Even as a tiny baby Freya seemed to love the camera. I have noticed that some children do seem to love the camera straight away and some don’t and in fact I think I would have been in the ‘some don’t’ category. (hence why I am behind the camera… probably!).

I took this picture of Jake before we went outside, he was asking me about my reflector. Jake loves seeing how things work, so I was showing it to him and he was listening quite intently. I just took this very quickly, using the window as a catch light.

Untitled-8 — Freya and Jake’s outdoor shoot

Finally I took some pictures of the Jake and Freya together. Freya is a lovely big sister and is very caring, you can see she is watching out for Jake all the time.