Jude's Second Birthday Party | A Family Photo Session in Belleville

Jude celebrates his second birthday with his cousins.

Can you believe that this little boy's birthday party photography session was actually two years in the making?

Yes, I was meant to take photos of this happy, cute, loving family, right when Jude was born, back in 2019.

Alas, things got in the way and then the pandemic hit and we pushed it off until it was safe for us to all gather outside and celebrate his birthday with some of his family.

I'm so happy that I got a chance to do this when he was TWO though.

Why?

Because Jude is the sweetest, happiest little boy, with the most gorgeous blond curls you've ever seen.

The fact that I was able to see him when he was two meant that he could run around and be happy and just be himself, and we could capture all that personality.

Of course I would have loved to capture newborn moments of him, but I’m looking at the positives of having a session when he was a bit more grown up.

Of all the photographs that I took from my time with his family, there are so many different types of moments that we captured. We did a lot of candid photos of Jude playing, we took a few candid/unposed family shots, and then some group shots, too.

It was lovely that the family gathered there to celebrate with him. We had an outdoor celebration, including a gift opening, bubbles, and BBQ. It was the perfect summer afternoon!

Jude hanging out with mom and dad at one of his favourite places: near the water, throwing rocks!

Lots of the photos are of Jude’s older cousins playing with Jude, and of Jude trying to find his place among the boys. Those are absolutely adorable, because you can see just how much he already looks up to them, even though he’s still so little. I’m sure he’ll have a wonderful childhood, growing up surrounded by so many boys to learn fun things from!

Some of the photos are of his family showing him things in the backyard, throwing rocks in the lake, and just generally adoring little Jude. And of course, there were lots of photos of this little boy exploring the back yard on his own (with mom and dad and grandparents nearby!), visiting the tomato plants, and climbing the stairs.

Funny thing happened though: when we stopped to take a couple of more posed photos, Jude wasn't very happy about it.

Aww. Cousin photos can be so adorable sometimes - like in this image, where all the older (and youngest!) cousins are having a good time, but Jude has a different plan.

It's almost like he and I conspired to show people how much easier it is to take candid photographs than posed photos. Haha.

As you'll see here in this group photo, Jude is not thrilled to have to stop playing and take a picture.

Just mere moments later, though, he's running around the grass through the bubbles and having so much fun. I bet you wouldn’t even know that these photographs were taken just minutes apart!

This is the power of a candid photography session.

For any parent who is undecided about documentary photos a.k.a. candid photos, I hope this demonstrates why it is so much easier (especially for toddlers) to have a candid session than it is to have a posed session.

Toddlers just want to get on with their fun play. They don’t want to be sitting still or being told what to do. They don’t care if there’s a photographer who is taking photos, as long as they don’t have to change what they’re doing for the photographer :)

And that’s exactly what a documentary family session is all about. Letting the kiddos play and do their thing, and just going with it, and capturing THOSE moments.

Now, having said all this, we did manage to get a few photos of Jude not crying in the group photos, and I know those photos will be happy memories for the whole family.

But the fact is, lots of the photos Jude’s family chose to print were actually the candid ones, where Jude was smiling big, and just being his true self. His happy, smiling, little boy self, who turned two last summer. 

Jude plays with bubbles in the grass during his birthday party, together with his cousins (this photograph was the front cover of the album jude’s family purchased after their session)