During the summer months these fields of yellow rapeseed look fabulous, so for this family photoshoot we suggested a red dress would be a great colour to contrast against the field of bright yellow. Not only does it look great, but we had a lot of fun throughout this photoshoot.
What you can’t see, however, is the small stepladder that we used to get to a higher position than this young girl who was waist-high in the bright yellow flowers, which really made a difference.
This style of photoshoot was one of our Experience Photoshoots, where we work with a family for a longer period of time. These photoshoots work best in outdoor locations. During one of these Experience Photoshoots we try to blend into the background to capture the very real memories that happen as the family experiences part of their everyday life.
For this photoshoot we went for a walk together in a lovely green nearby cornfield. Although we will do some posed photos, many of the photos from this type of photoshoot are more likely to be candid, informal photos where the family aren’t looking onto the camera.
There’s no point in having a photoshoot for children unless they enjoy it – if they don’t, then they won’t look relaxed in the photos. Helping them get comfortable allows us to create some great natural expressions that are so much more natural than they’d have been otherwise. If they start playing around it’s even better as their character naturally shines through – it’s these little things that parents want to remember.
We did this photoshoot out in the park, which gave us a chance for some relaxed and fun posing. Although in one of these photos this young girl is looking at the camera, these photos look really natural and are not staged in any way – as you can see she’s looking really comfortable, which makes for some lovely photos.
A walk around the gardens of a large country estate offered us some great outdoor portrait photo opportunities with lovely backgrounds of trees and flowers. The Japanese garden became a temporary playground, which kept someone’s attention for a while.
Our approach to working with families is to work at the pace of the children and see how the time unfolds. Of course we’ll have a plan of what we’d really love to do but, as is so often the case, we’ll find that if us adults are flexible, then it allows the children to be more relaxed, less bored and to have a more enjoyable time – and happy children make for great photos.
You can see our approach in these photos. In the first photo we’ve set up the pose to give a more traditional, posed portrait photo that we all adore. However, in the second photo we asked the young girl to pull different expressions – she loved doing it, as you can see. Then finally, the third photo is an example of a candid informal photo where the young girl isn’t looking into the camera, yet it really captures what she’s like as a person.
A trip into the grounds of a country house near Henley allowed us to create some lovely outdoor portraits. The weather was dry, but quite stormy, which made for a great sky in the background. In our Experience Photoshoots, we always aim to allow time for children to have some fun and to be themselves, as we know the photos will be so much better (and they’ll enjoy themselves so much more).
Late spring is ‘Bluebell Time’ in the woods, so on one fine spring day we did a family photoshoot in a field of beautiful bluebells. We could have set up this photos in a more staged way, but instead we thought the addition of Winnie the Pooh was a great idea, as it was this young girl’s favourite toy at this stage of her life. Every time her parents look back at this photo over the years to come it will bring back all of those memories of that time in their lives and what their daughter was like at that time.
This photoshoot was lots of fun, as this young lady wanted to make everyone else laugh. While not all of these photos are the type you’d hang on your wall, they’re lovely in a family album, as they all capture that sparkle in someone’s personality that everyone adores as she entertains them.
What we’ve done here is to really capture her character and bring out her mischievousness – it’s difficult to get children’s to trust you enough to do this but it’s one of those things we’re really good at – being able to get children to relax in our company and to really be themselves.
A local park offered us the chance to roam free in the gardens, and to create some lovely, natural-looking portraits. The first of these was staged deliberately, but the others were achieved by letting her wander about the park and to just be herself.
This was such a natural photo – no one asked the young boy to do it – he had his very own sword and was determined to stand on guard alongside the Life Guard outside Horse Guards Parade in London.
Just look at the expression on the soldier’s face – on the first photo he’s unsure what to do, probably never having had such a situation before. Then on the second photo, when the boy marches away, you can see the soldier desperately trying to hold back a smile.
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