I’m sharing this beautiful gallery from a month ago – the photo is like a rainbow full of beautiful floral props, jewel tones reflecting Mum and Dad’s tastes. And with this little Miss being a Spring baby just really fitted with the time of year. Some of these images are my favourite composites where baby is actually photographed in a workflow of poses on the beanbag and photoshopped into the images. This makes for a much smoother newborn shoot and is easier on the baby than transitioning them from prop to prop. It also means you can have such a mssive variety of images for your newborn shoot.

This beautiful family had a newborn shoot at their home in Ipswich so their furbaby cat could be included in the family photos. Their cat was so friendly and really well trained, as always including animals in family photoshoots is always done safely and usually as a composite which means the images are merged together in photoshop. I loved meeting this gorgeous family – the love for their cat and new baby was palpable, such an honour to be asked to take their photos.

I’m often asked if the quality of the images will be affected with an at home photoshoot, or better in studio, and generally there is no difference at all as I’m so used to working in all kinds of spaces and situations and been a photographer for so so long now (30 years) so you can trust I know what I’m doing and consistently deliver perfect images of your most precious moments of your new baby. There are sometimes exceptions if maybe it is a little too small to work in or you want backlit images of family but that is discussed when you book in.

Essex cake smash – beautiful bespoke photos of your little ones milestone birthday.

My studio is conveniently located just outside of Colchester near to Hadleigh in Suffolk and Ipswich. I offer a limited number of bespoke cake smashes each month with pricing starting from £150 including the session and with some digital images.

I can’t believe a whole year has flown by since baby A’s newborn shoot and here is the gorgeous little boy back for his first birthday photoshoot. From start to finish he was the happiest little soul. Each cake smash is individual and his Mummy wanted quite a neutral theme so the photos were all about him. So we went for a cream and gold balloon arch, a big number one, white simple lighting, we started off taking some photographs in his normal outfit as it was super cute and some family images, then he was changed into his little cake smash outfit with super cute hat and bow tie. And then we slide the cake in and he just loved it. I always ask parents to give their baby a cake a couple of weeks before the planned cake smash and to let them super messy and covered in frosting so it’s not strange when they come in to get messy. Sometimes babies don’t like to get messy and love the splashing in the rolltop baby bath but baby A just loved every singe bit. When you do lots of cake smashes you become adept at reading when baby needs to move onto the next stage, typically cake smashes last 45 minutes to an hour.

After the cake was finished with, I clean up the cake as I like a nice clean set with the rolltop bath, Mum and Dad helped by grabbing baby A and getting him ready for the bath part of the smash whilst I check the temperature of the water in the bath and brought it in, and then he splashed away. The beauty about cake smashes in the studio is that parents don’t have all the mess to clean up. This beautiful little boy was such a joy to photograph again. Cake smashes really are the most amazing way to record your babies first year and a wonderful memory to look back on, alongside a really lovely sensory experience for your child.

Questions I am frequently asked about cake smash pricing

How much do cake smashes cost?

My cake smashes start from £150 including digitals.

Does my child have to have cake?

No! I don’t advocate using artifical sweeteners for cake smash cakes, I am happy to work with parents to find alternatives to cake. You could give your child fruit, or carrot sticks, in fact how cute would a Peter Rabbit shoot be with your baby munching on carrots. It is possible to use a dummy cake too and hide some tiny little snacks on the back to keep your child interested.

Why are cake smashes so expensive?

Before every cake smash the studio is extensively cleaned using steaming and safe anti bacterial sprays on surfaces where the food touches, an average cake smash takes a good 3 hours to set up and clean properly, without any editing of images or the clean up afterwards. Balloon arches and bespoke sets take even longer to make, so even if this figure is out of your budget there is so much work that goes into just setting up the cake smash without taking into account wear and tear on equipment, paper rolls if you’re having a coloured background that are thrown away.

Using balloons isn’t environmentally friendly.

I pride myself in always sourcing ethically produced materials. Balloons are reused not to save money, but to have less impact on the environment. I do this by tying a few together it’s ever so fiddly and then untying them afterwards – great fun, but definitely trying to improve my footprint. On white sessions I use vinyl which means we don’t waste paper either throwing it away.

Where is your studio?

I have a gorgeous dedicated home studio located at Polstead Heath, Colchester, Essex – near to Colchester, Hadleigh, Boxford, Assington, Bildeston and Ipswich to give you an idea of location. I have ample parking and dedicated client toilet.

I met this gorgeous little girl just before Christmas for her beautiful newborn shoot, her families tastes were quite neutral natural looking newborn photography, her family had an at home photoshoot as Mum was feeling a little sore still.

I try to make my shoots run as smoothly as possible and plan the session beforehand, most sessions now are either totally simple posed on the giant beanbag and I have different colour blankets to transition baby from pose to pose, similarly when a family want props it’s usually a mixture of digital backdrops and props and I do the same posing flow to make the shoot as comfortable for the little baby, even though as photographers we try to photograph babies when they’re super sleepy and curly from birth because we want babies to be comfortable and happy, but I’ve found is parents want lots of prop shots moving babies from one prop to another is disruptive to their sleep and so I use the same flow method of posing to ensure the shoot takes as little time as possible whilst getting the very best photos of precious little babies, and still letting the parent have that experience of watching their gorgeous new little baby and just how perfect and precious they are.

How sweet is this little Miss! I can’t believe a whole year has just flown by since I first met Lilah as a newborn, and such a change since her sitter session. Babbling away and joyous to photograph, and how clever was her Mummy making this gorgeous cake.

Babies aren’t always sure about the cake part of a cake smash, sometimes they look as if to say am I really allowed this! But she really did enjoy this part, bashing and tasting little pieces – she was ever so dainty. 

What a memorable way to mark Lilah’s first year earthside, thank you Mummy and Daddy for giving me the honour of photographing another of your babies special first year, she is just so gorgeous.

Welcome to the magical world of Christmas at Liz Wood Photography. We have the wonderful vintage Victorian London nursery backdrop which suits Christmas photos wearing jumpers, smart clothes or pj’s or using our studio dresses, some families have chosen to add Peter Pan style images as well onto the shoot where we sprinkle pixie dust and fly. The images are magical whatever you choose. Our second Christmas choice is snow fairy or elf on a beautiful interactive snowy set. Whichever you chose your child will have an amazing time and not realise they are being photographed.

This was a beautiful photoshoot for this little girls birthday, and her Mummy wanted a Princess and fairy photoshoot. Miss A came in and picked out her favourite gowns from our Dollcake dress collection. She soon got to work twirling in her gown and blowing magical pixie dust, posing with the studio fox and forest animals. We got the most beautiful photographs of her.