What a birthday session covers
First birthdays and cake smash
A first birthday shoot runs 45 minutes and covers a small cake smash plus a handful of portraits before the icing goes everywhere. Most one-year-olds give you about twenty good minutes before they have had enough, so the schedule is built around that, not the other way round.
Milestone birthdays for children
Ages two to twelve usually want portraits in the birthday outfit, a few shots with siblings, and the cake moment. It overlaps with a standard family sessions from £250, and I’ll say so if that fits your budget better.
Party coverage
Full 90-minute coverage documents the party as it happens, whether that’s a rented hall in Walthamstow or a back garden in Peckham: arrivals, games, the candles, the mess afterwards. It works best from about age five, once there is enough going on beyond one small child and a cake.
Prices
A 45-minute session is £250. Ninety minutes of party coverage is £350. Nothing here is billed by the photograph.
- A full edit of every usable image, delivered through an online gallery.
- Colour and black-and-white versions of the key shots.
- High-resolution downloads, ready to print at home or through a lab.
| Session | Price |
|---|---|
| 45-minute session (cake smash or portraits) | £250 |
| 90-minute party coverage | £350 |
| Extra hour | £120 |
| At home | included |
| At a hired venue | included, travel within London |
| Printed photos | from £8 each |
At home usually works better than a venue for a first birthday: familiar surroundings, no travel with a sleep-deprived toddler. See full pricing across every service for everything else I shoot.
First birthdays, honestly
Twenty usable minutes is the real number for a one-year-old, not the forty-five you are paying for. I shoot the cake first, while everyone is still fresh and curious, and treat the rest of the session as a bonus. Do it the other way round and you get tired, blank photographs of a cake nobody is excited about any more.
Most parents want the tears documented too, and I’d argue they are right to. The meltdown when the icing goes in the eyes is often the photograph people love most a year later, not the composed shot before it. More on this in planning a first birthday shoot.
My honest opinion, against most advice on this: an elaborate cake smash set, matching backdrop and balloon arch, usually produces worse photographs than a plain wall and a real cake. The set becomes the subject, not the child. If you have a newborn too, newborn sessions from £220 cover that separately.
Photographing a party
A room full of six-year-olds, one adult running games and answering the door, and lighting from a single ceiling pendant: that is the average party. I bounce flash off the ceiling rather than firing it straight on, shoot from low at the children’s eye level, and get the group photo within the first thirty minutes, before anyone is overtired or crying.
What I need from you on the day:
- A rough running order for the party.
- Someone who can gather the children for two minutes when I ask for the group shot.
- Permission sorted in advance if other people’s children will be in the photographs, since some parents do not want their child shared publicly.
That last one is worth checking before the party, not during it. For more of this kind of work, see family and party work across London.
Adult milestone birthdays
A 30th, 40th or 50th at a hired room in Hackney or a private dining room in Fitzrovia is a different job entirely, closer to event photography than a family shoot. Guests arrive over an hour, a speech comes without warning, and the light drops fast once the room fills up.
I’d book this as event photography from £350 rather than as a birthday session; the pricing and the brief both fit better. If you want candid coverage of the room rather than posed portraits of the birthday person, tell me that upfront and I will plan around it.
When you don’t need a photographer
A small party at home, good window light, and a couple of relatives who take decent photos on their phones: you probably do not need me for that. Professional coverage earns its price with more guests, awkward lighting, or images good enough to print large.
If it is just cake and four grandparents in the garden on a sunny afternoon, save the £250 and ask someone to shoot it on their phone instead.
Send me the child’s age and the party date and I’ll tell you honestly which session fits best. Or just tell me the age and the date and expect a reply within one working day.