Professional photos: works of art or a waste of money?

I don’t know about you but I’ve always been pretty sceptical about shelling out a small fortune to have a stranger take professional photos of my family and me. When B and I got married, back in 2003, we hired the services of a professional photographer. It was a total and utter disaster; as there were lots of pretty, single, 20-something girls at our wedding (my gorgeous girlfriends) he spent most of his time chasing after them rather than capturing any decent photos. Fortunately a friend of the family is an amateur photographer who took some great, natural photos of our special day.

Ever since then B and I have turned our noses up at using a professional photographer, choosing instead to get friends or family to take photos of the 2 and then 3 of us on special occasions. However this changed when I met and befriended a lovely English lady, called Rebecca Marshall, when we were living in Nice. Rebecca happened to be a professional photographer based in the south of France and we bonded quickly over our love of France, the fact that we were both running our own small business, and that we were in relationships with Frenchmen.

For a long time Rebecca’s actual photos never came up in conversation so I never saw them, and had no idea if she was any good, or just one of the many people on the French Riviera trying to make a living from a vague skill they had.

Then one day B and I decided we’d like to run the risk and get some professional photos done by Rebecca to get framed and give as Christmas presents to L’s French grandparents.

The end results were so amazing that when I decided I wanted to have some professional photos taken to capture this, my last pregnancy there was only one person I wanted to take them. Rebecca is based on the French Riviera, in Vence, which is near Nice, but she also works in the UK from time to time. As we had a holiday planned for the end of August, when I would be 29-30 weeks pregnant we decided this would be the perfect time to get the photos taken.

Rebecca came up with an amazing location, near where she is based in Vence and, as you can see below, captured this precious moment for us in some amazing pictures. I would like to point out that I have been suffering from terrible pregnancy acne and with some make-up and Rebecca’s angles/lighting you can’t really see it. My hair also desperately needed a cut and colour, but again you can’t tell in these pictures. Which just goes to show what a professional can do!

Here is an overview of some of the photos that Rebecca took for us that day:

The three, nearly four, of us, sharing a special moment together in a gorgeous location.

The two most important people in my life: B and L

My earth mother look!

L captured at one with nature.

B and me cradling my nearly 30 week belly.

B and L – far more comfortable in a tree than me!

L having a kiss with her brother or sister.

Yet another earth mother pose, as I lie on some moss!

After the fun we had that day and having seen the photos I have absolutely no regrets about paying the money to capture these precious memories, and I hope that our baby will enjoy looking at these too when he/she is old enough to appreciate them.

About Rebecca:

Rebecca actually specialises in reportage and portrait photography for press publications, corporate clients and design agencies, however she does do sessions like ours for word of mouth recommendations. So if you are looking for something a bit more special than a standard studio photo shoot, for photos taken in real places that capture the essence of the subjects, then I can highly recommend her.

Rebecca works in the French Riviera/Provence areas of France and also travels for photo shoots to other parts of France, the UK and Europe. She is a freelance photographer and her regular magazine clients include the New York Times and the Financial Times; Ford and Monaco University are some of her corporate clients.
For more information: www.rebecca-marshall.com

Disclosure: I was not paid to write this blog post. I paid for the photo shoot and for the photos that we received. However Rebecca is a good friend, and we have really appreciated her work which is what prompted me to share our experience.

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2 Responses

  1. MummyinProvence says:

    Cute pics!! I regret not getting some done – I do plan to get some family ones done as soon as BiP stops falling flat on her face and doesn’t have a big scab on her nose!!!

  2. Franglaise Mummy says:

    Thanks! I regretted not getting any done last time round, so wanted to squeeze some in before it was too late with baby number 2. Good luck with the family photos, I seem to recall Léna falling over lots around that age. Feel free to mention my name to Rebecca if you want a quote when you come to getting some family pics done, as I mentioned she does do shoots in Provence and it might be nice to have them taken by an English speaker. Also she makes the whole shoot such fun and so easy, even with kids – no mean feat!

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