RAW Chronicles - January 2026

Happy New Year 2026 from Raw Photography Manchester 🎉

A brand-new year is here, and January always brings a lovely moment to pause, reflect, and reconnect after the festive season. We wanted to start 2026 by sharing a little of what we got up to over the holidays, looking back at some highlights from 2025, and showcasing one particularly magical recent session. Thank you, as always, for being part of our journey and for continuing to support our work.

🎆 Happy New Year & A Festive Catch-Up

We’d like to wish all our wonderful clients, followers, and friends a very Happy New Year 2026. We hope you had a restful break and are feeling ready for the year ahead.

Our holiday season was a little split this year!

As an actor, Callum stayed closer to home for panto season, starring in Aladdin! He did his first run at Middleton Arena before heading over to Colne’s Muni Theatre. Callum has virtually always played the comic, but this year he stepped confidently into the role of the baddy… and the boos certainly didn’t put him off! It was fantastic to see him embrace the challenge and enjoy every second of the audience reaction.

I, meanwhile, spent Christmas in France and had an amazing time photographing chihuahuas, enjoying a fabulous cabaret show at Le K in Reims, and tasting some seriously delicious food Chez Vincent.

📸 Thank You for an Incredible 2025

Looking back at 2025 fills us with so much gratitude. We’ve had the privilege of photographing families, newborns, doggies, professional headshots, and special milestones throughout the year. Every booking, recommendation, message, and share truly means the world to us.

Thank you to everyone who trusted Raw Photography Manchester to capture your portrait and your memories. Whether it was a newborn session, a playful pup shoot, or a family update, you helped make 2025 a year to remember.

To celebrate, we’ve put together photos of some of our favourite sessions from the past year.

🪄 Molly Pawter – A Magical Studio Session

Molly Pawter. Molly is the most loving & gentle rescue staffy you’ll meet. And she rocked her Harry Potter-themed session!

One of our recent highlights was our Harry Potter–themed studio session for the wonderful Molly, also known as Molly Pawter! Molly is a young rescue staffy and honestly could not have behaved any better if she tried. What a poser she was. The session was absolutely magical 🪄✨

We’re only sharing the images now because they were a Christmas present and had to be kept under wraps for a while… 🤫 Totally worth the wait.

Sessions like this remind us how much personality our four-legged clients bring into the studio, and how creative and fun themed shoots can be. See for yourselves!

Molly Pawter Behind-the-scenes session!

🥂 Cheers to 2026 (and 50 Spins Around the Sun!)

As we step into 2026, we’d like to wish you all health, happiness, and plenty of reasons to celebrate. Here’s to many more photo sessions with humans and pets alike. And thank you, as always, for supporting our small business.

🥳 A special personal milestone to finish on: Callum turned 50 on the 1st of January and was surprised with a lovely mini party at home with family. A big shout-out to Heywood’s Baked Goods for the incredible scuba-diving themed two-tier cake (forgive the phone photos, the cake didn’t live long enough to make it into the studio for professional shots!) and to Balloon N Brilliant for the super creative balloon displays!

To celebrate properly, here’s a slideshow of 50 shades of Callum. Not that kind of shades. Only 50 spins around the sun. Cheers to 50 more!

Here’s to another creative, joyful year ahead. We can’t wait to see what 2026 brings.

Warm wishes,
Roxane & Callum
The Raw Photography Manchester Team 📸

Callum, Roxane, Vixie, and Miss BunnyPenny.