I am posting this with permission of Lili's mummy and daddy, hoping to help raise some donations for a very worthwhile cause.

This morning this lovely angel was laid to rest - aged just 23 months. Lili was tragically taken away 2 weeks ago by meningitis. Her heart breaking story can be seen and donations made via the following link LITTLE HAVEN. Please donate if you can - I know from mummy herself that the Little Haven hospice was a great help to the family at this very sad time, and they need all the funding possible.

I have photographed Lili 3 times in the last 23 months, and she was a beautiful, bright little girl, a joy to have around. My thoughts and prayers are with mummy, daddy and twin brother Lukas. I wanted to share with you a beautiful reading which really touched me from this mornings service, by Henry Van Dyke.

We are standing upon the seashore.
A ship at our side spreads her sails to the morning breeze,

And starts for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength.
And we stand and watch her until

At length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where

the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone our my side says;
"There, she is gone!"

"Gone where?"
Gone from our sight. That is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was

When she left our side and she is just as able to bear her
Load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in us, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at our side says,

"Oh, she's gone!", there are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad shouts of
"Here she comes!" We've been waiting"

Happy new Year to all of you - I am now back in the office and just wanted to say hello! Unfortunately I have had to cancel the last couple of days sessions as I have had severe tonsillitis and flu and not feeling my best. Thankfully the antibiotics have kicked in and I can now attempt to reply to the the couple of hundred emails received whilst I was off . Please be assured I will reply, but please bear with me - it may take a few days. Shoots resume tomorrow, and at the moment the availability is pretty good - I have slots available for February onwards. This may not be the case however once I finish replying to the 50 or so session inquiries sitting in my inbox - I will keep you posted!

Just a quick note to let you know that I am now away from the studio until the 5th of January. If you are thinking of booking a session, please email me on mariamurray@mac.com, and the enquiries will be replied to in date order. Please note that the first available session date is the 1st of February. I do not have any weekend dates available until the 3rd week of April. There are some big changes on the horizon for 2011, so please pop back soon...I will be blogging a lot more next year. In the meantime, I wish you all a healthy and happy Christmas!

Indeed the time has come to close my diary for this year - it is bursting at the seams and already I seem to be working until 4 am every morning! It has been an incredibly busy year and there are lots of changes planned for next year, including a bit of re-branding ( yup - again), amendments to the product range and lost of other exciting stuff. The studio will be closed this year from the 17th of December until the 6th of January, when I will be catching up on my sleep and enjoying some well deserved family time.

If you have a newborn due in the New Year and you are reading this - please, please if you do wish to book , do it sooner rather than later. This and next week has been incredibly busy for new babies, and I have had lots of enquiries on newborn photography. Sadly, I could not accommodate most ladies, and this is mainly due to one or both reasons -

* the sessions were not pre - booked, which simply means I have no space in my diary

* a lot of the calls I get are when the babies are already a week /few weeks old. I must re-iterate that I completely understand that to a new mummy and daddy at this stage the baby is still a newborn. But in photographic terms , the newborn stage is over once the baby reaches 10 days or so, although sometimes this can be stretched out a few days more. The best time for newborn photography is between day 4-10, ideally day 5/6/7/8, and this is when best results are achieved. Even if your bubba is really small, the newborn session can only be successful when we have a very sleepy baby. An every single day your newborn becomes more and more alert, and not so easy to settle into a deep sleep.

So, if you would like a session - please book well ahead - please do not leave that call until the last minute as the chances are I won't be able to help. I am now booking for January - there are less than 10 sessions left! The next available weekend is in February.

So just to finish this post off here is an image of a very sleepy, milk drunk little newborn - enjoy!

I am now away and not back in the studio until the 1st of November. Please note that the next available appointment slot is now the 8th of December. The next available weekend session is the 22nd of January. Please email me on mariamurray@mac.com if you are expecting a newborn before those dates and require a session.