Family life is full of energy, life and love. And I think your family photos should be, too. I want to give you family photos that’ll make you smile every time you pass them in the hall. Filled with huge smiles and tight hugs, infectious laughter, and podgy little hands around necks.
There will be absolutely no pressure for them to behave a certain way.
I love to capture in between moments, so even if your little one trips over a branch, I want you to come down to them, comfort them and love them just as you would on a normal day.
These are also moments that I love to capture. It’s not all about the smiles. I want to capture you, being a mother, and mothering.
Leaning into the moment and trying to let go as much as possible in the process leads to the best sessions.
Your children can't do anything wrong on the day in my eyes
My top tip is to try to not worry about the kids too much and try to keep the session fun, free flowing and upbeat.
Tips on letting go and leaning into the session
01.
I find the more parents can relax into the session, the more the kids want to be involved. Whereas the more time parents spend forcing a smile, the more the kids tense up.
Try to spend lots of time engaging with, smiling, playing and loving on your kids.
02.
The sessions are designed to be casual, where you enjoy an hour together, so the focus is just trying to have fun and be yourselves!
Try not to get upset or frustrated when the kids aren’t doing what we would like or telling them to smile
03.
Sometimes even if we eventually manage to force a smile from the kids, we capture you mid "telling-off!" 😅
If the kids aren't into what we are doing, allow the session to be fluid - I just move onto the next thing with no pressure and try to capture it later on:
04.
I promise you will have absolutely no pressure from me that your kids must behave the whole time! Keep rolling with it!
For newborn sessions where the siblings don't want to be involved...
05.
...I sometimes find taking the pressure off them and saying let's just capture parents and baby can coax them to join in the fun in a more natural and less forced way.
Feel free to bring things along (eg toys, snacks/ picnic, bubbles etc) that you would normally take on a family outing.
06.
My intention is to capture your family, doing your thing, as naturally as possible!
Lastly, it can be quite cute and funny to capture the odd sour face or eye poke of a sibling - we are after all taking authentic photos of your family at that moment in time!
Any no-nos?
07.
I highly recommend to keep devices away from your little ones before and during the sessions as it's usually a bit of a struggle to get them to put them down. For shooting we won't get those lovely smiles if they are looking at a tv or screen.
