Newborn and baby photography, one straight road from Royston

The road from Royston to my studio in Papworth Everard is one of the simplest drives in the county. You go north on Ermine Street, the old Roman road, through Arrington and past Wimpole, through Caxton, and Papworth Everard is the next village. About thirty-five minutes, and in all that way you hardly turn the wheel.

Is thirty-five minutes too far with a newborn?

It is a fair question. The honest answer is that it is an easy thirty-five minutes: there is no motorway and no city in the middle of it; you park at the studio door; and inside it is warm, quiet, and ready before you arrive.

Once you are here, nothing is hurried. A newborn session goes at your baby's pace — we stop to feed, to change, to cuddle, and start again — and you can sit down between photographs. The journey home is the same straight road.

If thirty-five minutes is still the thing that stops you, tell me. I can come to you in Royston instead, and the travel is priced in before you commit.

The newborn session

Since 2010 newborns have been the centre of my work. Whether your baby arrives at the Rosie in Cambridge or at the Lister in Stevenage, the best photographs come in the first fortnight or so — and if that has passed, there is still no wrong age.

Thirty-five minutes each way makes the two hours of the Classic Newborn Collection worth more, with brothers and sisters in the photographs too. The Total Newborn Collection keeps every image and adds a heART Fusion film; the Mini Newborn Collection is a single hour. Prices and contents.

Therfield Heath in spring

Royston has one thing no other town near me has: Therfield Heath, the chalk downland that rises over the town to the south-west. For three or four weeks from late March it is covered in pasque flowers — tens of thousands of them, purple, low to the ground, and found in only a handful of places in Britain. They are Hertfordshire's county flower, and this is the best place to see them.

It is the most beautiful setting I can think of for a spring maternity session: the heath, the flowers, and the whole of Royston below. The rest of the year it is wide open grass with long views — room for a family session with children who want to run.

The heath is a drive from the studio, so there is a small travel cost. Pasque flower dates move with the weather, so if you would like April on the heath, write early and we will watch the season together.

Babies and first birthdays

Families from Royston and the villages around it — Bassingbourn, Melbourn, Therfield, Barkway — come back to the studio for baby sessions and a cake smash on the first birthday. The drive is the same straight road, and older children can look out for tractors the whole way.