Meredith, Josephine and Amelia are first cousins with Flora and Eliza. But their relationships are so much more than just family - they are also best friends and the five girls have spent much of their childhoods all together running around their gardens together, playing games like hide and seek, ring around the rosy, chase, as well as having countless picnics and tea parties. Their mamas were keen to capture those special memories before Tracy and David left the island with their three girls. It has been a devastating blow to Tom and Susan, who is David's sister, and Flora and Eliza. The life events the two families have shared are many and amazing, from the births of all three of David and Tracy's girls, to Susan and Tom marrying and having their two girls. It is these memories of support and friendship that their parents hope the girls never forget. They want to make concrete how lucky they all were to be together in such a beautiful place for so long. So as a going away present, Susan thought that a photos shoot of all the cousins together would be the perfect send off and thank you gift for having had her brother and sister in law there for them on so many occasions. Luckily, Tracy was able to get permission for us to shoot in the beautiful Gibbons Gardens, which was the perfect spot for all the girls' games, including a very special tea party with treats for the end of the shoot! The girls loved the opportunity to dress up and have a garden party together and the mama bears just swooned at the beauty and happiness of it all. I did too!
Meredith is the eldest and sometimes I could tell some of the games were a little young for her, but she was such a trooper entertaining the littles and leading the way and taking such sweet care of her younger cousins.
Josephine would also be a leader with her big sister in most of the games. Her resolution this year was to take more responsibility in caring for her youngest cousin, Eliza, who is completely smitten with Josephine. I was also so impressed with her during the shoot as I was told that she was not usually keen on all the girly things like flowers and dresses and jewelry, but she looked an angel and didn't complain at all, even though she might not have felt as comfortable as usual.
Amelia is the baby in her family but is very close in age to Flora, who is the elder of her two cousins. She and Flora are the very best of friends and absolutely adore each other.
I have been photographing Flora since she was a newborn and have loved seeing her grown and change over the years. She will remember forever the countless play dates she had at Aunt Tracy's house and used to ask every morning it it was a day when she was to go see her cousins.
Darling little Eliza is such a pudding and the baby of all the cousins though she keeps up well through determination and not giving up. What a lucky girl having so many big girl cousins to look up to and admire!
These are the extraordinary treats their mamas brought them to feast on once we had captured all the other key photos. I was swooning at their beauty and it made me long for a gluten tolerance instead of a gluten allergy!!
Thank you all for such an inspiring and beautiful shoot - it really captured the magic of childhood, friendship and most importantly, the love shared between cousins. xxx
