Filtering by Category: Children's portraits

Return of the Twins

I consider myself very lucky with my job. I get to meet lots of lovely people, either on their wedding day or when photographing their families and babies.

I photographed this lovely couples wedding day, and this was the second year I photographed them and their beautiful twin boys. When I first met these two little legends one was wearing navy and the other teal, so I could tell them apart. The second time we met, again one was wearing navy and the other teal, so I thought this was going to be easy, but as it got warmer the coats came off to reveal fabulous matching rainbow jumpers. I was going to have to work harder to tell them apart, studying the shape of their faces and which one has the bigger dimples I think I know which one is which now, I hope when I see them again they won’t have changed too much.

We went to Southover Grange Gardens again, as this is where they got married. It never fails to be beautiful there, and the photographs always look different. It’s a lovely space with lots of room for children to run around. I bought along bubbles and a confetti cannon, with little ones it can get a bit boring for them to have to pose for photographs, so I like them to run and play and have fun, then it feels more like a visit to the park rather than a bossy lady making them pose for pictures and sit still. You can still get the posed photographs but they don’t mind.

It makes me so happy when people come back to me, it means they like me and what I do, and for someone that struggles with confidence and belief in myself, it really helps. I want to make my clients happy. I want the experience of having the photographs taken to be fun and relaxing, and for them to love the end result.

Portrait of a family

I recently photographed a family of 16! They had won a £75 photo shoot, that we had donated to a charity raffle. It was such a lovely shoot, as half of the family were living in Australia and this was an opportunity to have a big family photograph taken with everyone in it. 
It was at one the the family members homes and they made me feel so very welcome, even if at times it was difficult to try to get everyone in the photo. I haven’t taken portraits at someones home before, as I usually prefer to be outside, you don’t have to worry about floor lamps and plug sockets getting in the way of your photograph.

It really did feel as if I was doing something very special (especially for the Grandparents), even one of the Grandma's thanked me for giving her such a precious gift, and said how kind we were to donate something so special. That's why I love photography, it's a way of preserving those magical moments that will be with loved ones forever.



Forever Autumn

I was very fortunate in November to photograph these lovely sisters and their families. I had photographed one of the families before and I always have the most fun with them. This shoot was to be the same jolly, happy, easy going and, as always, with fabulous outfit changes.

The photographs took place at the local Priory ruins in Lewes, (my favourite place). The seasons really change the place. There are so many colours the orange, red and yellow leaves contrasting against the gorgeous greys and whites of the flint and stones and so many textures in the ruined buildings. It is particularly beautiful in Autumn, there are so many different colour leaves, it is just stunning. We were fortunate to have had dry weather, so the children could sit on leaves without any fear of getting wet. A couple of days after the weather turned very windy so most of the leaves had blown off the branches.

I constantly wonder if I did the right thing by leaving my secure office job to follow this path, being self employed is difficult, especially if you’re like me a, ‘Cautious Carol’ that never that never leaves my comfort zone, but when I have experiences like this shoot and I create such beautiful photographs, that my clients love, it makes me very happy and pleased I made the scary move.

Santa's little helper

As I don’t have a studio I am unable to offer those kind of photographs, but I really wanted to take some Christmassy photographs of Hudson, my great-nephew. So thanks to a white bed sheet and some fairy lights on my bed we managed to take these. Hudson was an absolute star, He had an occasional moan but could be calmed with dummy breaks. My niece had bought his little outfits from local shops and I got some of my Christmas decorations out the loft. We hadn’t planned to put him in the Santa sack, we tried to put him in a Christmas stocking but he was too big, so we got him in the sack and filled it with Christmas toys. It was just magical, as he then fell asleep in there. It was a truly fun afternoon and I can’t help but laugh and smile at the photographs that we got. One of my favourites is him with my niece and he looks like he’s just about had enough of having his photo taken…enough Auntie Becky.

Mabel & Elijah

The part of my job that I enjoy the most is photographing children. I find them so much fun and you never quite know what kind of photographs you will get, as it all depends on what mood the children are in. I’ve been very lucky with all the children I have photographed, as they have reacted well to me and my camera. They have enjoyed it. It’s the reason I like location shooting more than a studio as it is more of a fun adventure day out than a pressurised environment of a studio. This time though as Mabel was only a couple of weeks old, location shooting does not work, so I have a temporary studio I put up in my home. As it is a home environment it is still a relaxed atmosphere for the children, so they still enjoy it. The last thing you want to do is make the children feel the pressure of your one hour to perform and you get unhappy, sad children.

Mabel and Elijah were fantastic, Mabel slept the whole time (I got to give her cuddles to settle her for her photographs) and Elijah was a very attentive big brother. We had lots of fun and plenty of beautiful photographs of them. I even discovered that Elijah is fond of saying “Norman Price” in a bad Welsh accent, the same as my husband, so the two of them got on very well, talking about Fireman Sam.