Celebrating turning one with an outdoor Winter photoshoot

First birthday & family session at Porthluney Cove Beach, Cornwall

It was a cold but clear morning for Casen’s first birthday photoshoot. We met at Porthluney Cove beach at 9am, and the tide was just on its way out, so we had the spaciousness of the beach without it being too far out.

I love this location as the car park is right there, so it’s easy enough to nip back and get something if needed and we don’t need to lug lots around on the beach.

Casen was entranced by the dogs on the beach, and had two missions : to walk, and to pick up stones.

He’d only just begun walking so wasn’t too steady yet, even though he wanted to be! For now it is mostly having to hold hands to prevent him toppling over, though I did manage a couple of him standing by himself and catching a step or two before taking a tumble! It’s a sweet stage, and I know he’ll soon be running around and they’ll look at the photos we were so proud to get of him standing by himself and wonder what the big deal was - but it’s exciting when the next stage begins, isn’t it!

The wonderful advantage of a winter session is the fantastic light & colours, but the drawback is that babies can’t really sit in the sand and play, or go paddling etc. Everyone has shoes on and it’s not really ideal to be going ankle deep in wet sand as we might do later in the year.

Casen did plop down briefly in the sand but we soon scooped him up for some sweet family photos before he got too wet.

After a bit we headed up the dunes for a change of scene. Another reason I love Porthluney Cove - the choice of scenes in close proximity.

By this stage Casen was feeling the cold and probably a bit hungry so we took a last few photos on the beach and called it a day. All in all a lovely little family session in honour of Casen turning one!