The Cake Smash photo shoot is one of the crazes from America that I’m very glad has made it across the pond to us here. I’ve been offering them for a couple of years now and they are such fun. OK, they do get a bit messy but I think that is really part of their appeal.
Initially, I started with just a clean shoot followed by the smash the cake session but after a while I decided to add a tub splash in as well. The purpose of this is threefold really. Firstly, most babies do love bath time and so it’s fun for them. Secondly, you get great pictures of them having fun in the tub, the more bubbles the better! Finally, and this the most practical reason of all, wet wipes can only cope with so much and if it has been a particularly sticky session then you will still be taking home a particularly sticky baby. A good tub splash means that you take home a squeaky clean little one!
Mum, dad and siblings are welcome to join in at the beginning of the session for the clean pictures, although there’s no denying that the assistance of mum and dad during the session will definitely be needed. It can get a bit messy for them too as once your child is covered in butter icing, then that is just going to be the moment that they decide that they want an extra big cuddle so I’d recommend bringing along some spare clothes if you are planning to go out anywhere afterwards!
It’s a session that is slow to start as the first thing that you need to do when you arrive at the studio is to make some choices about the backdrops and accessories that you would like for your shoot. I have a range of backdrops, bunting and accessory sets available but of course you’re welcome to bring along anything that you would like to include and if you have ideas that you’re not sure about, just get in touch and I’m happy to chat them over. I always make sure we get out everything we need for the whole session before we get started as trying to do anything with an icing covered baby is just ten times as hard! Anyway, once all decisions have been made, we actually get on with the business of taking photos.
We start with the clean shoot which can be family photos, or just of your birthday boy or girl (I have some first birthday props you can use if you’d like to). We keep this section quite short and sweet as we have a lot to get through and we don’t want to tire out a tiny person too much before the main event.
Then it’s time to break out the cake. You would think that all children would automatically want to dive in and get smashing and eating but quite a lot of babies are a little shy of it at first. It’s not likely that they will have ever been confronted with such a big bit of food before, especially something as sweet as this, and then been told to just go nuts so a little patience at this stage goes a long way. We have wipes on hand in case we need to demonstrate the cake eating process (tough life!) or break into the cake so that they can get past the sweetness of the icing to something that might be a bit more familiar. Sometimes it is a good idea to bring along some snacks, daft as that sounds when you are already bring quite a lot of food. However, we can hide raisins in the cake to encourage them to start digging about in it – it’s cheating a bit but… All of that said, it’s also not uncommon for a baby to delve right on into the cake and love every second of it.
When they’ve had enough cake, we clean up a little bit and bring in the bathtub, add the bubbles and top it up to the right temperature ready for a good old splashing. Like I said earlier, most babies love bathtime but of course this section is not obligatory if your little one really hates it. Bubble beards and hats, likewise, are not obligatory but of course are very welcome!
Then it’s time to get dry and dressed and on your way. Your pictures are normally available 10-14 day after your session for you to view in your online gallery so if you’d like them for the actual birthday then it’s helpful to give me a little bit of time to get them ready for you but I always do my best to get them sooner if you need them. Then you can pick the five that are included in the session free and order any more if you would like them. As with all of my photography though, there’s no sales or viewing meeting to attend. No catches. Just great pictures of a very special person on a very special occasion.
