Black and white close up portrait of a two year old girl with backlit curly hair, smiling at the camera
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Toddler Portraits in the Garden

Meet the beautiful Nina. She is only two and a half. Her mam Sarah was over with me last Friday, and somewhere between the second cup of tea and lunch I asked if I could borrow Nina for twenty minutes.

I did not have a plan. Nina and I went to the wardrobe, found a pale pink tulle gown in her size that she liked, and we went out into the garden.

Two year old girl in a pale pink tulle gown sitting under a conifer holding a hydrangea, with fallen autumn leaves around her

You do not need to buy anything

I keep a selection of beautiful dresses in sizes up to age 14, and they are there for you to use in your session. You do not need to shop for an outfit, you do not need to worry about whether the good dress still fits, and you do not need to spend money on something that will be worn once. All you need is a clean pair of white socks.

The thing that stops most people booking a portrait session is not the price of the session. It is the quiet job list that comes with it. Finding something for her to wear, getting it in time, hoping she does not put jam on it in the car. Using a dress from my collection, saves all that stress.

Toddler in a pale pink tulle gown and grey shawl standing beside a black barn door

Twenty good minutes

With a small child you get about twenty minutes of genuine cooperation and then you are borrowing time. So I do not pose toddlers. There is no sense in it. I follow them.

Nina went where she wanted. She sat on the path and looked back over her shoulder because something behind me was more interesting than I was. She loved Buster our dog and decided he should be in the pictures too. She ran, because the dress was enormous and running in it was clearly the point. She twirled, because she felt like a princess!

My job in those twenty minutes is to stay out of the way, keep the light right, and be ready when she forgets I am there. That is when you get the real ones.

Toddler in a pale pink tulle gown sitting on a garden path and laughing over her shoulder
Toddler in a pale pink gown sitting beside a West Highland terrier on a garden bench
Two year old girl twirling on the lawn in a long pale pink princess dress

The one I would print

The picture I keep coming back to is not the dress at all. It is a close black and white frame, the sun coming through her hair, a small smile, looking straight down the lens. No performance in it. That is the frame her mam will still have on the wall in twenty years!

The gown was printed too – it will be very interesting to see which is Sarah’s favourite in a few years.

Sessions in the garden and the studio

All of this happened in the garden beside my studio outside Kilcock, about thirty minutes from Dublin and easy from most of Meath and Kildare. When the weather is against us we do exactly the same thing indoors, and the wardrobe is there either way.

If you have been thinking about children’s portraits, or you have a small person who would enjoy twenty minutes of being absolutely ridiculous in a very big dress, you can book a session here.

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