18/04/2026
It is an established maxim of the human experience that one can have too much of a good thing. Quite who "they" are, the dour, faceless committee of fun-deniers who come up with these joyless proverbs, I cannot say, but I am reasonably certain they never had the pleasure of meeting young Jude.
Jude is currently eight months deep into his earthly residency and possesses the sort of effortless, devastating charm that suggests he is destined to leave a trail of broken hearts from here to the Cotswolds. While we are on the subject of biological unfairness, we must discuss his hair. It is a mane of such implausible, swishing voluptuousness that I found myself gripped by a sudden, green-eyed envy. Some fellows, it seems, are simply dealt a better hand by the follicular gods.
Being the offspring of the South West’s most accomplished drama coach, I naturally assumed that photographing Jude would be, if you’ll forgive the staggering lack of imagination, child’s play. I placed our pint-sized star beneath a softbox of such cavernous dimensions it could have easily doubled as a modest aircraft hangar, and prepared to witness the magic. My shutter clicked, the flashes popped with industrious enthusiasm, and Jude, to his immense credit, dialled the cuteness up to a level that would have rendered a hardened Victorian schoolmaster misty eyed. It was, I told myself, going to be an epic.
However, "they" those meddling proverb-smiths, also point out that pride goeth before a fall. Having secured a "bag" (as we photographers optimistically call it) of winning shots, I decided to raise the stakes by introducing Mum into the frame.
This, it turned out, was my Waterloo.
It appears that a happy, beaming infant is far more interested in the familiar, radiant face of his mother than in some sweating chap he’s only just met who keeps pointing a heavy glass and metal contraption at his nose. To capture a smile now required a degree of physical exertion I hadn't prepared for. I found myself scooting across the floor with the frantic, undignified grace of a startled crab, desperately seeking an angle that might preserve these fleeting moments of domestic bliss.
If capturing such joy is indeed a "good thing," then I must respectfully disagree with the faceless overlords: I don’t think I could ever possibly have enough of it.