See? What did I tell you? Gorgeous. Yes, I do realise that, as I write this, the weather is once more a monochrome mist but when we did this shoot it was everything you’d want in an autumn session. And it was unbelievably warm.

We had an absolute ball during this shoot and pretty much laughed our way through the entire thing. Just lovely. And very funny. Lucy’s family are all pretty confident which is just as well ’cause every time we set up a shot with one or two of them, their siblings generally did everything they could to make them crack. And, on the whole, they succeeded. Luckily I really like that sort of image as people tend to be that much more relaxed when everyone around them is mucking around. Just as well really.

This was all shot at Bernwoode Forest just outside Oakley. We’ve photographed there half a dozen times now and there’s something about the light there that is quite distinct. It’s a nice venue in that the location where we shoot is pretty much next to the little car park which makes it really easy for families with younger children (Coombe Hill has more variety but it’s always quite a hike back to the car) which works really well.

There are some shots in here that are already earmarked for the next book – I just love the backlighting through the grass and the leaves and I think it would look amazing across two large pages.

Nice way to spend a Sunday morning: great light, a beautifully warm autumn day, a really lovely family group and a fantastic setting. Hopefully the images have caught just a bit of that!

Let me know what you think!

Cheers
P.

It’s that time of year again when everything is just beginning to erupt into a medley of vibrant oranges and ochres. I am sure I must say this all year round but this really is my favourite time to be shooting – from now until the end of November is possibly the best time to get images. If I get a moment I might just post some favourite images from the past couple of seasons to show you what I mean. Gorgeous.

This particular shoot was quite unusual in that Judith and the guys had come to us after having had a session at another big studio that, well, let’s just say, hadn’t gone as well as it might have. I will refrain from relaying the details but all they wanted (and didn’t entirely get) were some really beautiful, relaxed photos of them as a family before Austin headed to Nottingham University to have the time of his life….er…. I mean, to work hard and study.

Now don’t get me wrong, we’re hugely competitive as a business and there is always a bit of me that isn’t averse to hearing that other studios don’t seem to care about customer satisfaction quite as much as we do – however, it also saddens me somewhat as the whole of our industry gets tarnished with such tales. Believe me when I say we work unbelievably hard to make sure it never happens here – every single one of our clients is (and always has been) an integral and important part of our success and I like to think it shows in the long and fruitful relationships we have with so many of them who come back year after year and who recommend us to their friends and family. There isn’t a greater compliment.

And it’s even more important when I know they’ve come to us having had a less than ideal experience with another photographer!

Anyway, enough of my soapbox – this particular session was brilliant. We started in the studio and then headed up to Coombe Hill (one of our favourite haunts) and just had a ball. Now I know it doesn’t really matter whether I enjoy myself or not as long as we get the images we’re after. However, for the style of images we’ve made our trademark, it does make things easier if the photographer is relaxed and having a good time. Which I was!

All four of the guys were really good company (and unbelievably easy to photograph – which helps!) and the images we’ve caught are really chilled and natural – at least I think so! And, of course, the light at this time of year is just stunning.

Let me know what you think!

Cheers
P.

4 lovely kids and a huge garden. Brilliant.

The weather was decidedly grim but the energy of these children is such that you would never know!

However, you know those days when you walk into a room and the opening line from one of your young subjects is “I just hate being photographed”? Well this was one of those days.

I do like a challenge though.

So I lent Francesca my spare camera (a Nikon D2Xs no less – possibly a tad on the heavy side for a 9-year old but still) and we ‘worked’ the job together. This took the sting out of her being nervous in front of the camera when she could get her head around what it was like to be behind the camera. And on top of that, we may have encouraged someone to get into possibly the greatest profession imaginable.

Actually, this is something we try to do quite a bit – involve the kids. It seems to work. The proof from this session is that we have the most gorgeous shots of all four of the children looking completely relaxed and at ease, contrary to the early objections.

Admittedly, a less positive by-product is that I do also appear to have lots of shots of me taken by Francesca. Nothing like a child’s view to make you look older than you feel!

Let me know what you think.

Cheers
P.

We’ve been waiting for a chance to do the final bit of Sophie’s session for a while (we did the first part back in July) and we finally completed it this week.

It’s always a challenge to get dates to work out as not only are we busy (particularly during the summer) but our clients are as well. This was definitely worth the wait though! I think John should have been at the first session but in the end it wasn’t possible, so we extended it make sure Sophie has all the pictures she wanted to put together a really stunning album.

It’s going to be quite a challenge when we do our next ‘favourites’ book in January as we will have thousands of new images to go through – some of these will absolutely be on the shortlist!

I know, I know. It feels like it’s been raining all summer (actually, the stats do back that up – it’s officially the least sunny August since er…. well, the British Summer was invented) but if you were to look through our blog images you wouldn’t really know it. We’ve been pretty lucky in dodging the showers.

So it was on Friday.

As always, I had been glued to Yahoo weather to see just how many umbrellas and changes of clothes we might need and, as usual, it had changed its mind every hour. I really don’t know why I bother. So it was with some relief that I pulled up in Tetsworth, Oxfordshire to meet the guys and the light was simply gorgeous. Not too hot. Not too cold. Not too bright. Not too dark. And – you’ll understand my slight astonishment here – miraculously dry. The camera gods (was there one called Nikon, God of Light?) were smiling.

I’ve photographed Cary and the girls a few times now and I absolutely love it – all three of the girls are just lovely but also they’re confident and full of energy which makes the images so much more interesting! They also each have very distinct and different characters that work well together. This is the third set we’ve taken of them now and I’d be hard pushed to choose my favourites as there are, to put it mildly, quite a lot!

Enjoy!