In actual fact, the sun was so hot (and so unbelievably bright) that we had to work quite hard to find angles that didn’t involve squinting or deep shadows but that’s photographers for you – never satisfied.

This, for me, is family photography as it should be. Beautiful location, lovely family and – though I may be setting the bar a little high here for the UK – beautiful hot, sunny weather. A really lovely session that has produced some really beautiful images!

Let us know what you think,

Take care
Cheers
P.

We’ve been doing this for quite a few years now to support the amazing work that the guys at this pre-school nursery do. Our own kids went there so it’s really close to our hearts.

This session is always amazing, always challenging. We only allow 15 minutes of shooting per family which heightens the pressure somewhat but it’s a huge amount of fun!

We try very hard to do much of it outside (always my preferred location when it comes to photographing kids) but hey, it was the end of March. So it rained. And rained. However, in the gaps between downpours, we had kids jumping in puddles and riding scooters down wet roads – brilliant! I like love working in odd weather conditions because it generates pictures that are less usual and they’re full of character. That said, it is lovely when it’s sunny as it means I don’t end up lying in wet gutters!

So there we are for another year. 1 long but rewarding day. 14 families photographed. 1354 images taken. 7 cups of coffee. 1 pack of biscuits. 1 sore pair of knees. 1 pack of Ibuprofen. Countless laughs.

We have met some absolutely lovely people and had a real ball. Once again, I think you can see it in the images.

As always, Let us know what you think.

Cheers
P.

I don’t want to talk about politics or the economy (am I being naive in thinking it’s looking up?). I don’t want to talk about the state of customer service in the UK (terrible if my experience with Orange is anything to go by – it was only thanks to a very lovely and diligent Ellie that I managed to get my phone working again after numerous attempts at the hands of various call-centres and the shop in Aylesbury – which, incidentally, I will be avoiding from now on) or the price of fuel (huh? it’s £6 a gallon – six flippin’ pounds!). Nor do I wish to be seen to be moaning about the huge great caverns that have opened up in our roads (a couple of these wouldn’t look out of place in a blockbuster disaster movie: 2010 The Days After The Snow…) or the fact that someone keeps parking (badly) a great dirty truck outside our front window.

Nope. That would be all too much like being a grumpy old man. An urge that I am, at least for the time being, resisting – though it has to be said my resolve is sadly waning. So I shall keep those little gripes to myself and continue to only chat about stuff that makes me smile.

Such as this particular shoot with the The Elders (the family, that is, not our village leadership.)

This was the second session of their three over the year and I’m loving every second of it.

The twins have grown considerably – even in the short time since the first session. But, then, that is why we hold three sessions over 12 months as you really do get to record quite a change in that all important first year. Would make a wonderful album!

And I think that is a nice topic to be blogging about

Let us know what you think!

Cheers
P.

Enjoy!

Enjoy!

It does have to be said that I’m pretty much as bad at cleaning up disks as I am cleaning up the desk around my Mac and printers – my biggest problem being I’ll find something interesting and immediately get distracted by it! Which is exactly what happened here – I was moving some files around and caught sight of these album files for Lucy & Steve.

Although most people probably associate albums with wedding photography, rather than lifestyle or fashion, we actually produce nearly as many lifestyle and family books. Why not? A lifestyle shoot does, after all, create a whole load of priceless images that are just as important, particularly if they’re from a family session, and will last a lifetime. And they look great in a beautiful album!

So here’s one from last year: Lucy, Steve & George. We photographed Lucy & Steve’s wedding so it was wonderful to see them again – particularly with the addition of George. We chose the location as the Mausoleum that rises high above West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. A stunning location! I loved this shoot and we have some truly gorgeous images of all three of them – particularly George who is a real character!

Just brilliant!

Cheers
P.

That was what had happened that this particular shoot. It had been in a diary for a while to photograh Rebecca Foulkes and her family over at their farm near Thame in Oxfordshire. and, much to my excitement (and hopefully their’s too) it had snowed! OK, so for anyone reading this in, say, Washington at the moment, it may not be quite the same snow that you’re currently experiencing – but the few inches we had, happily brought the country to its knees.

Thankfully, it wasn’t too much of a problem to get over there (our trusty old Shogun has done us proud this winter) but keeping everyone warm enough to be photographed was an entirely different matter!

Still, snow is such a fantastic environment in which to photograph – particularly for portraits – as it creates an unbelievably natural wraparound light. Just look at the portraits below to see what I mean. And, given it’s unbelievably rare in this country, it makes these portraits even more unusual and special! Though watching out for shivering, streaming eyes and runny noses was also a necessity!

I loved this shoot and I love the photos we captured.

Let us know what you think.

This was one of those sessions.

I’ve photographed Karen & Dave and their family before and had been looking forward to the session for weeks. But it was to be a studio session rather than location as the weather had been awful all week. I do love working in the studio – it’s much more technical than location (in as much as you have to control rather than locate the backgrounds and lighting) and it’s hugely rewarding. However, it’s not my ‘home’. Outdoors will always be my natural environment as I think children, in particular, are much more at ease when they can run unrestricted, only needing to stop and be photographed when we find some stunning light.

However, I needn’t have worried.

Sam & Maia stepped into the studio as if it were the most natural environment in the world to them. And the pictures we captured of the whole family are everything I think you’d want from a photo. Some are funny, some are moody, some are formal while others are essentially moments I grabbed as i saw them.

But they all tell a lovely story of this time in Karen & Dave’s family.

And the frame we just delivered is gorgeous!

Priceless.

The light, the location, the family. It all just fell into place and we had a ball.

Lily was clearly the star of the show and played for the camera from start to finish (it was hard to know when to stop as we could have carried on getting stunning images until it went dark!) but we have really lovely images of everyone both individually and as groups.

One of the reasons we like Coombe Hill so much (apart from the fact that it is generally a very beautiful place to be) is that there is so much variety in which we can capture images, from the grassy area as you go into the National Trust area, to the woodland, to the high almost moor-like area on the top to the deep forested area reminiscent of many a Hollywood Sherwood forest! And to top it all nicely, the last shot was taken in the carpark itself! No opportunity wasted!

Oh, and there’s nearly always an ice-cream van parked up there somewhere which keeps the kids and adults alike happy!

As I said earlier, this was one of those sessions!

Let us know what you think.

Cheers
P.

I’ve just spent a very happy 20 minutes trying to get my head around my own Facebook profile and, much to my embarrassment given my technology background, failed miserably. I think have just asked quite a few people I know (and possibly one or two I have absolutely no knowledge of whatsoever) to be ‘friends’ of mine. If only real life were so easy huh? Just login and say ‘be my friend’. Actually, come to think of it, my boy Jake does exactly that – he simply walks into a situation – any situation – and excitedly makes new friends. Oh for the confidence of youth!

Anyway, unsurprisingly, I’m digressing. Back to the job in hand. (Is it any wonder I get behind with my blogs when I spend so much time talking about anything but the topic I set out to write about?!)

So, where was I? Ah yes, the Krauze family.

I wasn’t sure quite what to expect with this shoot as it was in a location above Nether Winchendon that we’ve never photographed before. I shouldn’t have worried though as the light was beautiful up there and we found an absolute wealth of locations in which to work.

At the end of the day this job is all about the light as that is, technically, all a photo is. A split second of light reflected from whatever it is your capturing. You’ve got to love photography for that utter simplicity.

I love these images for the characters in them though as much as the light. This was a fantastic session, full of energy and life and I think that it shows in the images. And just when I thought we’d caught everything, one of the lads pulled off the perfect ‘Dick Van Dyke’! A good day by anybody’s standards!

Let us know what you think.

Cheers
P.