Never Work With Your Own Children, They’re Animals

The list of business advantages of being a mother to three young boys is not a long one, but when I recently had to shoot a range of childrens’ aprons for my lovely new client Ochre & Ocre I already had a supply of eager young models.

Well, I say ‘eager’.

It’s always nice to involve the family in my job and over the years my eldest has had his little fizzog drafted in to flog products from soap to electrical components…

Ted was just a babe in arms when he appeared in this material for Square D electrical widgets and an ad campaign for Coventry City Council

Ted again, posing with soap made by The Shaw Trust

Ted playing an out of focus second fiddle to his mate on the cover of Milverton School's recipe book

Dan this time, along with his Dad, popping up in a Marston's Recipe book

All very lovely. Unfortunately though, the moods of small boys don’t work to deadlines however much I have to. While the prospect of ‘maybe being in a magazine’ was initially appealing, it lost its edge when they learned that ‘no, it’s not for the Ben 10 magazine and no, not for the Doctor Who one either’. So it was with fading light and fading enthusiasm that the simple promise of Jaffa Cakes brought forth the show-off that resides in all boys.

I got the shots we needed and they got to throw flour around the kitchen.