Her words were something along the lines of: “With all due respect to you Jodi, but bearing everything in mind from our shoot, we couldn’t quite believe how amazing the photos are. One of the boys was sick and grumpy, the weather was dismal and the shoot was so different to how we had imagined it. ” This is the myth of the perfect photoshoot.

Let me set the record straight, more often than not, this IS a photoshoot with kids. Imperfectly perfect. Someone has a meltdown at some point. Someone refuses to wear the carefully chosen outfit. One of the little ones has managed to scrape their knees the day before the photo shoot. And then, there’s the London weather. Ah, so predictably.. unpredictable.

It gives me a tingly feeling to produce amazing work DESPITE the odds stacked against us (and it’s always an us creating, not just me). Often it’s BECAUSE the odds are against us, and I am pushed to the edge of a comfortable space.

Behind the scenes, you KNOW the struggle we went through. You know that no one would be still for more than 3 seconds. You know that a lot of my jokes were incredibly lame. I’m ok with that; the littlest ones still gave me a big ol’ belly laugh.

Imagine if the weather was always perfectly mild and dry. Imagine if no one had a snotty nose. Imagine if everyone listened and sat still throughout the session. To be frank, that sounds a little bland to me. For me, the magic is in the puddles after the rain has bucketed down. The best giggles are the ones that I have worked really hard to get. The best shoots are the ones where I come home and have to tip my camera bag upside down to get the last pieces of grass out of it.

Imperfectly perfect, pushed to the edge of comfortable. And making real memories.

To me, THAT is the perfect photoshoot.