This should make you smile.

‘Like’ our page on Facebook to take advantage of special shoot offers. Once a month, we’ll release 5 family studio shoots for £1 (instead of £195).

That’s ONE POUND!

Why? Because we saw the Hoxton Hotel does it with their hotel rooms, so if it’s good enough for them, then it’s good enough for us. Be one of the first 5 to contact us when the Facebook message goes up and you’ll be sitting pretty in front of our lens.

Good luck!

We asked a local theatre seamstress  to create for us some adorable Wizard Of Oz and Mary Poppins costumes for their children. The photo shoot was a blast and the portraits, that we used to decorated their home, will now have pride of place on our website.

This is what the lovely Anna had to say…

We had a really enjoyable time, it wasn’t a hard shoot at all and the kids really had a lot of fun. We had heard about you from Stagecoach in Wimbledon and we had had to change our booking several times but you made it pretty easy each time to get a time that worked for us.

We were stuck in traffic on the way to the studio and when we arrived we were a bit nervous but the kids straight away fell in love with the studio, the costumes and the whole experience.

The viewing was unexpectedly great! When we chose the portraits, it was much easier than we had experienced at another studio that we had visited. It was fun and not a really hard sell at all. It was one of your strongest points. My husband wasn’t looking forward to it but he enjoyed it and we fell in love with the canvas and the acrylics.

You should open more studios!

I remember being introduced to Karen Hastings many years ago at a southwest London networking event. She’s a fellow American (yay!) and an entrepreneur, too. She told me about the great new club for mums, babies, and families, called Cupcake, that she was starting up at the time and I definitely had one of those wish-I’d-thought-of-that moments. When we opened up Julia Boggio Studios, Karen invited us to be the official photographer of Cupcake, to offer her members a high-quality, amazing photography experience at our studio. For three years, we’ve photographed many lovely Cupcake families from the Parsons Green club and created stunning family portraits to decorate their homes.

When I (finally!) fell pregnant, I was so excited about going to Cupcake and experiencing it for myself. It really is lovely and the treatment rooms are divine. The best thing is that I can leave Baby in the créche as I go upstairs to get a much-needed massage. And after that, I can ignore my eternal diet by getting a yummy cake in the café.

I thought it would be interesting for you to hear a little bit about Karen and how she created the Cupcake Club for Families. Taking a project from idea to reality is not easy – how many times have you had an idea and thought, “I could make my fortune on this!” only to lose your impetus when it came to making it happen? Karen Hastings is an entrepreneur who made it happen. This is what she has to say.

JB: What was your eureka moment for the idea of Cupcake?
KH: I was chatting with some mums with young children who said that they were lonely, bored and looking for something amazing to help their families thrive.

JB: What were the key milestones in opening Cupcake?
KH: The most important milestone was securing the initial funding in April 2007. Next I had to find the location, which I did the following August. With membership clubs, one of the most important things is to have members, of course, so I had to sell memberships even before the doors opened. That was a big success, which meant I was able to open up a marketing suite with my first 3 employees in January 2008. And finally, I opened the doors in April 2008.

JB: What advice can you give startups?
KH: People often ask me about this so I’ve come up with my top ten tips.

1. Tell everyone you know.  Create a “fellowship” to cover finance, strategy, marketing, sales and cheerleading and then create a monthly update- and report on progress each time and ask for specific things each time,

2. Do the numbers. Figure out how much money the business can make and then figure out how you can survive the start up financially (great Business link guide).

3. Use all available resources. I suggest Business Link, The British Library, and your local council can all be great places to start.

4. Find inspiration. Read up on other entrepreneurs, read books and listen to podcasts (Beermat Entrepreneur, What Should I Do with My Life, Losing My Virginity, SmallBizPod cast, etc.).

5. Find your competition. Ask yourself what people will spend on instead of what you want to provide? And become a compulsive Secret Shopper!

6. Identify what you are really trying to achieve at the end of the day. For you, for the business, and for your family.

7. Ensure you have your partner’s full support. This is an important one. Without his or her support, you will find it very difficult, especially when things get hard (because they will get hard).

8. Surround yourself with a good network of people who can help you build the business. Ask all the time, poach where necessary, and find ways to vet people who want to work with the business.

9. Network, network, network. Look into Alumni associations, Local Business Associations, and Schools/Women’s groups/Expat groups.

10. Be accountable. As we say in the US, the buck stops with you. Be accountable for your goals/timeline, for your brand, and for your actions.

JB: What makes Cupcake really special?
KH: We are devoted to taking care of our mummies and how that makes it possible for them to use their energy, creativity and personal joy towards their families.

JB: How does Cupcake include the whole family?
KH: We have classes and seminars from the first scan to the first day of school.  Mums, Dads, babies, toddlers and school age kids can come and do classes here every day, play in the cafe, enjoy the crèche and attend informative seminars.  Mum & Dad can also enjoy fitness (including personal training) and chill out in the spa.

JB: Personally, what is your favourite thing about Cupcake?
KH: Having mums and dads thank me for the difference that my club and my wonderful staff have made to their lives.

That’s how it happened that we have so far donated eleven canvases and counting to Kingston. The images have really helped to inject a bit more of a friendly baby atmosphere into the unit and even the staff have been so appreciative of having something pretty to look at. It’s also really funny when friends we haven’t seen in a while suddenly get in touch to remark on the beautiful newborn images on the walls – including a great big one of us with our daughter in the stairwell.

We also have a page on the hospital’s website. Kingston Maternity Hospital

And if you’ve had your baby at Kingston, we’re always looking to add more babies to their walls, so get in touch to book your photo shoot.

For those who live in Putney, Wimbledon, Barnes, Richmond, Teddington or the other areas around Kingston, we highly recommend their maternity hospital. They were professional from beginning to end and, hopefully, one day we’ll be back with a Number Two (no pressure, Julia). For those having babies at Kingston, look out for our photography. You can’t miss it!

Anna and Nick are my ideal kind of client: fun and a little bit crazy (although I think Nick accused me of the latter a couple times, too). We met up in Hoxton for an I Love London photography shoot, as a pre-wedding celebration.

The day may have been cold and drizzly, but we still managed to have a blast. Anna, who I personally think has an Anne Hathaway-ness about her, was especially enamoured of my red hat, so she wore it in most of the photographs.

Nick, who was having bad dreams the night before about being photographed, came out of his shell amazingly well and really threw himself into the experience with gusto. These guys were fabulous. I also had the privilege of shooting their wedding the following week in the Cotswolds (more on that later).

I Love London shoots are a great way to explore the city. Lately, we’ve been receiving calls from tourists who think that a photo shoot is a fun thing to do in London while they are here. I agree.

How does it work? Well, we normally meet up somewhere like Hoxton, Borough Market, Spitalfields, Southbank, or Notting Hill, and we simply take a walk. When I see somewhere I think would make an interesting photography location, we stop, I pose the couple (naturally), I shoot, we move on. The shoot lasts about two hours and, by the end, we’re all in need of a drink, but in a good way.

Find out more about our I Love London shoots on our website.

Before opening the Wimbledon Studio, Julia shot the majority of her work out and about in some fabulous locations all across London.  She’s been keen to get her team back into the open air for ages.

Being photographed in a studio and being photographed on location differ for a few reasons. The biggest difference, of course, is that you have to travel to the studio, so location shoots are more convenient. Also, shooting somewhere familiar to you means your children will be more comfortable, with their own toys and belongings close by. There is always a change of clothes handy for when babies have trouble keeping it all in – let’s face it, parents and we studio photographers have been weed on and worse many times by the cutest of newborns. The session will be very relaxed and you’ll be able to get a wider range of images as the backgrounds will always be changing.

That’s not to say we don’t still love a good studio shoot here. It’s just nice that we can offer both experiences to our clients. Trust me – you don’t want to do the first birthday cake shoot at your house. It leaves quite a mess.

Our location shoots last for two hours and cost £295. If you would specifically like Julia to do the shoot, then it’s £395. We are really excited about photographing you and your loved ones.

For the first ten families that book in for a location shoot in May or June, you’ll get the shoot for free. For the first five that book, you’ll get the shoot with Julia Boggio herself!

Early one Sunday morning at the beginning of April, the team from Baby & Me Exclusive arrived at our studio for a fabulous children’s fashion shoot. Our four little models were the winners of a competition run by the magazine. It was the birthday edition of Baby & Me and they wanted to showcase some clothing from designers around the UK and abroad.

So who does what at a fashion shoot? Well, first there is the stylist, who is responsible for putting the outfits together and making sure the models look right. On this shoot, we didn’t have a separate hair and make-up artist because our models were already so cute, they didn’t need extra assistance. Next, there is the art director, who helps to create the set and approves the images being captured by the camera. The art director is also responsible for laying out the piece in the magazine. In this case, we were shooting for the cover and six pages for the fashion story. Then there is the editor, who makes the ultimate decisions about what goes into the magazine and what stays on the cutting room floor.

From my side, there was me (of course!). My main responsibilities were to make sure I was realising the vision of the editor and art director on film, while making sure that the children were engaged and participating in the creation of the images. For this, I also had two assistants who alternately behaved like loons for the kids and helped with my photography needs.

My favourite outfit was without a doubt the Mischka Aoki dress on the cover. I LOVE her dresses (perfect for flower girl outfits, too). If only she made them in my size.

I hope you enjoy the little film we put together of the day and please do have a read of the magazine. I found some really interesting articles in there, like the one on teaching children self-control and the piece on Little Linguists. I also accidentally bought the Olympic celebration print from Belle and Boo to hang in Baby’s room.

I was newly pregnant when we heard about Julia Boggio Studios. Being pregnant and then soon after a mum to a new little baby boy, I had a preg-head. One thing that I loved was that and your studio helped get us organised for an amazing shoot.

The shoot was great and having all the fancy dress there was fabulous. The shoot felt relaxed and that we could take as much time as we needed. We have never felt that at other studios, where we had felt like we were on a conveyor belt being rushed out of the door in 45 mins after a few scripted shots.

It felt like the shoot was ‘on the hip’. It didn’t feel regimented and that it was just for us. We had two shoots, the first with our son and dog. The shoot was fabulous and our dog was made to feel very welcome and thankfully performed brilliantly on the day. Our second shoot, newborn shoot, was exactly what we wanted, with some gorgeous little poses gently created and teased out of our new baby that were right for us. The shoot was lovely!

Our viewing was fabulous but the hard thing was that all the portraits were so good we thought at the time “How on earth do we cut them down!”. The viewing was relaxed and we felt that we could take as much time as we needed. It’s a big decision and a big financial commitment and we didn’t feel pressured into buying everything. It was just how we wanted it to be.

The frames offered at your studio are gorgeous and fitted in with our personal style. We chose to buy lots of separate frames so that our living room centerpiece can be flexible and evolve as we wanted.

Your studio style is individual and it marks the studio out as being very different. That’s what people want and it will mean that our portraits from your studio will be unique last forever.

It captured a real moment time and I’m sure my son’s children will have them on their walls in years to come.