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Hello!
My name is Valentina. I'm a London baby and maternity photographer.
I share tips, curiosities, information, and more in this blog. Grab a cup of tea (or a glass of wine) and read away!
I'd love to read your comments.
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What’s the main message of Milk Tales?
This was my answer on my very first podcast back in July, before the book even launched. And now, after being featured in Grazia, this message feels more important than ever.
Every story shared helps another mother feel less alone.
Every conversation breaks the silence a little more.
If you’re struggling with breastfeeding, please know: you deserve to be seen, heard, and supported. Your story matters.
Milk Tales available on Amazon
#MilkTales #BreastfeedingStories #MaternalMentalHealth #breastfeedingsupport #postpartumsupport
I never thought I`d see my story in Grazia.
But here it is. My journey with breastfeeding. The struggle. The guilt. The feeling of failing. And why I turned all of that into Milk Tales.
When I was breastfeeding, I felt completely alone. I thought I was the only one crying through feeds. The only one who couldn`t make it work. The only one drowning in guilt when I stopped.
But I wasn`t alone. None of us are.
That`s why I wrote this book. To collect the stories nobody tells. The truths we`re all too afraid to say out loud. The guilt, the grief, the pressure, the relief.
Because however you feed your baby is enough. And you deserve to feel supported, not judged.
If you`ve ever felt alone in your feeding journey, Milk Tales is for you.
Available on Amazon (link in bio).
Thanks to @melhunterwrites for listening to me and writing this beautiful piece and @graziauk for publish it.
Read the full Grazia article here: https://graziadaily.co.uk/life/parenting/breastfeeding-guilt/
Tag a mother who needs this.
#milktales #breastfeedingjourney #motherhoodunplugged #graziamagazine
Here’s the truth: I guide you into these moments.
I ask Dad to hold baby on his chest.
I invite Mum to step close.
I create the setup.
But the feeling that happens inside that moment?
I can’t create that. That’s all you.
My role is to guide you gently into a space where real emotion can surface. Where you’re not performing. Just feeling.
And that’s what makes these images matter.
Years from now, you won’t remember the direction. You’ll remember how it felt to hold your baby this small. To be this close. To feel this much.
That’s what I capture. Your presence.
If you’d like to keep these early days forever, I would love to create something like this for your family.
#newbornshoots #londonnewbornphotographer #photographybyvalentina
Every newborn session is someone’s once.
That’s why this work is never routine to me.
Every baby makes me love what I do a little more each time.
If you’d like to hold onto the first memories of your family, I’m here for you.
#londonnewbornphotographer #newbornshoots #photographybyvalentina
In the smallest details, whole worlds exist.
A newborn foot becomes a landscape, lines like branches, paths, traces of something ancient and natural.
Macro photography allows us to see what the eye would normally rush past.
These lines will stretch, soften, change.
But right now, they tell a story of beginnings.
If you would like to capture your baby’s story of beginnings, let’s chat.
Forty-five.
Another year of stepping in front of the camera when it’s easier to stay behind it.
Another year of choosing to be seen when being invisible feels safer.
I photograph women because I believe they deserve to be celebrated. To exist in their own stories. To be remembered.
And every year on this day, I try to offer that same grace to myself.
Not because I feel ready. But because presence matters more than comfort.
I’ve made a pact with myself this year: to step in front of the camera more often. Not just on my birthday, but whenever I need the reminder that I belong in my own story too.
Because if I’m asking others to be brave enough to be seen, I need to practice that courage too.
Here’s to another year. To showing up. To being held in moments worth remembering.
Thank you for walking this journey with me.
#londonportraitphotographer #empoweringwomennow #over40andfabulous
Based in Richmond, I work with families across London to capture life’s most meaningful milestones through portrait photography.
