Before a single photograph is taken at a Five Graces session, something far more important happens. We make a friend. Not in a jazz-hands, stand-up-comedian, “LOOK AT ME I HAVE A CAMERA!” kind of way. Children can smell that energy from across the playground. It’s the same instinct that tells them which broccoli is hiding under mashed potato. They don’t need a performer. They need a person. Someone who is genuinely interested in them — not in the outcome, not in the smile, not in the “perfect...

If you’ve ever tried to ask a group of young children to all look in the same direction at the same time, you’ll understand why traditional photography instructions don’t survive long inside an early learning centre. “Everyone look at me!” is a beautiful theory. In practice, one child will immediately look at the ceiling, another will sprint past you at Olympic speed, and a third will stare directly into your soul with the calm authority of someone who absolutely will not be told what to do...