Red Riding Hood In The Fairytale Forest

Hello everyone!

I’m so excited to share these photographs that I took yesterday of Lola.

Caught up in the snow bubble…

A bit about about this week first – we have been in a bubble here the last few days.  The schools have been closed, so the children have been at home with me since Wednesday.  Here in the UK we get very excited when snow comes, especially here in Norfolk as it’s such a rare occurrence.  I can only remember three big snowfalls since I moved here in 2000.  The last one was back in 2013, when my son was four years old, and he has been absolutely desperate for it to snow ever since.

Part of the reason we have been so excited is because opposite our house, is a heath.  Everyone has stories about sledging on that heath as a youth, and this week we have finally been able to do it for ourselves.  It’s something that people don’t seem to grow out of, and I’ve seen adults and children alike squealing with joy as they hurl themselves down the side of a steep hill!

So I’m really happy that we’ve been able to make some memories this week.  I am of course now left feeling slightly panicky at all the work I have to catch up with, but that’s another story!

A shoot inspired by fairytales…

This little fairytale photo shoot was something I’ve always wanted to try out with Lola.  These photographs are really inspired by some of the beautiful images I’ve seen on Pinterest here on my Winter Fairytale board.  After our second day of sledging and playing in icy cold winds, we were both a little bit on the fence about actually going back outside to to it.  We did her hair in braids and suddenly got really excited to go to and capture some magic!

These pictures are of course loosely inspired by Little Red Riding Hood.  A friend of mine kindly gave me this old red velvet curtain last year, and I managed to make it into a cloak by folding the top over.  I absolutely love the pop of red against all that white.  We didn’t go too far from this spot because it was absolutely freezing, and it seemed to perfectly fit the vision I had in mind.  For me it was also about the expression and mood – the last thing we wanted to capture was a vulnerable girl alone in the woods.  We wanted a bold, fierce, strong and independent fairytale heroine, and I love that that really comes across in these photographs.  Watch out Bog Bad Wolf, this is no shrinking violet!

On Wednesday morning, Norwich was in the midst of a blizzard.  It looked like Narnia for a couple of hours, and I was out with my camera by 7.30am, determined to capture it for you.  I will share those with you on Sunday, so please do pop back!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Tamsyn x