Even though I am a child and family photographer, I still make sure to photograph my own children on a regular basis. As I work so hard capturing memories for other parents, I do not want to miss my own children's childhood.

Recently I have found myself being more and more critical of my children's images. Tonight it really hit me hard. So after an amazing hour outside playing I decided to make sure I hardly culled a single image. The only images I removed were duplicates. I kept all the blurry out of focus ones, the underexposed, messy images and especially the ones that are considered technically incorrect because they do not follow the rules of photography. Sometimes photography isn't is about rules, its about memories. Memories that are frozen forever into a single image. 

Here is the whole selection of images I took this afternoon. I edited them all in Black and White, as that is how I envisioned this collection to be.

Please do leave a comment and let me know what you think. Should I had deleted some/most of these images? Or do you believe I did the right thing by keeping them all?

A Story of an Autistic Child...

Starting school can be a very daunting time for any child. It was for both of my other children, but i was especially nervous for my youngest. He is autistic. His old nursery told me that he would not manage in a  mainstream school. They told me that he would achieve nothing. He was severely autistic. This broke my heart. I had such high hopes for him. When i went to pick Roman up from nursery he was sat in a corner with threading. That's what he did all day, every day. I just looked at my precious little boy and my heart shattered. He looked so sad, so miserable. He would never smile. He was like a newborn baby in a toddlers body. I just didn't know what to do for him. He had been at nursery for over a year, surely by this point he would had opened up, shown at least the tiniest bit of emotion. I felt lost, isolated, alone.

My two other children were at a mainstream school in Radstock called Trinity Academy. They opened up a kindergarten for children over the age of three. I started talking to the school about my huge concerns about Roman and that i was told he just wouldn't succeed. I was struggling to choose a school for him and i needed some advice. And you know what they told me?

"BRING HIM HERE NOW. Enrol him into our new kindergarten and put our school down on your form. No child is a lost cause. We will do EVERY thing we possibly can to help your son. Look at what we have achieved with Joshua!"

 And you know what? They were right. What they have done for my other son with disabilities is amazing, above and beyond. They didn't HAVE to do what they do, they do it because they WANT to. They believe every single child can achieve at school, no matter their circumstances.

I pulled Roman out of his old nursery and placed him into the care of Trinity. What did i have to loose? Roman couldn't of been any worse.

First week: Roman started smiling!!! By the second week Roman started to enjoy nursery. Third week Roman sat down at circle time! Forth week Roman started interacting with other children. By the fifth week Roman started to try and communicate with me. It was amazing to see see the change in him. It was really surreal. I had a couple of meetings with the school about Romans needs, and they assured me that all Romans needs WILL be met. They were so pleased with his progress in such a short period of time, and they knew he will get more and more confident!

Two-three months after first starting the staff discovered Romans amazing talent on the computers and shortly after Roman showed an incredible talent for Maths and Number work!!
Now they new what his strengths were they really worked on them. The thing was, Roman actually enjoyed Maths games and Computer time! He loved it. He was laughing, giggling, interacting even making fleeting eye contact with them!!

I can not tell you all enough how much Roman changed. It was incredible. I was actually in tears of joy! The school were right, Roman would achieve! He will succeed! And most importantly he could finally be the little boy that was just begging to break out.

I am angry at the nursery that cared for Roman for 18 months of his life. They missed his talents. They over looked them. They didn't have the time (or couldn't be bothered) for him. When I see that the papers sing that nurseries praises it makes me angry. The nursery and school they SHOULD be praising is Trinity Academy. Do you know why? Because not only did they support both my child with additional needs, they also supported me. I don't know where I'd be without their help. I also do not know where my children would be. I can not thank them enough.

The local paper (Somerset Guardian) will not write anything good about them, so I thought I would!!!

Romans first day at Trinity went amazing today. He loved every single second of it. He loved the staff, the teachers and even his new class mates. He put his hand up to answer a question, he was vocal, he was polite, he was everything a parent wish of their child at school. I can not take all the credit to the little boy Roman is today. The wonderful staff at Trinity deserve that.

Thank you for your wonderful support.
Thank you for believing in my son.
Thank you for giving him a chance.
Thank you for being the wonderful school you are and for never ever giving up.