We've got some very exciting news - we're about to get a delivery of brand new t-shirts. And to top it off the very talented newborn and baby photographer, Abigail Stewart, agreed to photograph the samples in her Buckingamshire-based studio last week.
Although her core business is based on photographing newborns and babies (she's a bit of a baby whisperer incidentally - our team have seen it for ourselves), she turns her hand to other types and styles of photography too, such as product, family, and beauty photography, to name a few.
Luckily for us, she squeezed us in to her busy schedule for a few hours to photograph our tops so we can add them to our website soon. We're also hoping to work with her to shoot models wearing our tops at a later date, so you'll be able to get a really good feel for how they look on a little one!
Our real-life experience on a photo shoot with Abigail Stewart Photography
We sent one of our team armed with tops and coat hangers to get the deed done (and to have a bit of a nose around, we don't mind admitting). Babies and young children are the core of our business so we're always interested in finding out how other businesses aimed at parents of babies and young children work. And who better to photograph baby-related products than a renowned baby photographer!
Our roving reporter will be first to admit her photographic skills aren't great, but we thought you'd like to get a feel for the venue and what goes on on a product shoot, despite her rather 'basic' photos.
'When I arrived in the country village of Little Horwood, Abigail took me straight to her newly built studio, which is surrounded by trees and fields. I felt a bit like I was arriving at a country spa, it's got that luxurious and very, very peaceful feel to it.
The studio itself is painted bright white inside but there are touches of softness throughout with pastel-coloured blankets, rustic furniture, and examples of Abigail's work on the walls. There's a lovely private toilet which has a fully-stocked baby changing table, and there's a secluded area for if you want to breastfeed your baby in private. And tea and coffee and (most importantly I think) biscuits on tap. What you can't see but you can only feel, is the warmth in the room. Obviously this is for when Abigail is doing newborn photo shoots but the temperature in the studio is wonderful and made it feel really cosy. I could have easily dozed off!
This is me below taking a really bad selfie shot of part of the studio - I really wish I'd brushed my hair! I had a bit of an ulterior motive for coming on this shoot - being heavily pregnant I also wanted to check out the facilities, and how Abigail works, for myself as I've been seriously considering arranging a newborn shoot for when my baby arrives.
Anyway back to work. First Abigail and I discussed how we wanted Snugtums' new tops to come across on the website. In our last photo shoot we photographed our products hanging on a wall and they looked great. But this time around we wanted something slightly different as the tops themselves are different, so Abigail made lots of great suggestions about how we could photograph them. Eventually we agreed to shoot them flat on white boards, so you can really see the detail of the tops and the colours really stand out on the white background. While I settled down on the sofa with coffee and biscuits Abigail got to work, first testing the light in the studio to make sure it was the best it could be.
In case you're wondering, I did try to help but my big bump and I ended up getting in the way so I put my feet up and ploughed my way through a pile of biscuits instead.
Watching her work was fascinating. She spent a huge amount of time making sure the tops would look absolutely perfect, removing creases, and flecks of dust or lint, then shooting, re-shooting and checking the shots with me every time.
The photos have to be perfect because once you have the shots on the website and customers use the zoom tool they’ll be able to see any fleck of dust or imperfection. So it's important to get it spot on, especially when you're promoting a high quality product.
I had a great experience today and want to say thank you to Abigail for making me feel so welcome and comfortable on the shoot. I know our product shots are in safe hands and can't wait for the rest of the team to see the photographs.'
Once Abigail has edited the shots in post production (by edited we mean removing specs of dust from the white background, not tweaks made to how our products look) we'll post the new shots on our product pages. We can't wait for you to see them! Thank you Abigail Stewart Photography We think you're pretty likely to have a newborn shoot coming your way too after all the great biscuits you provided!