Family Photography When on Holiday in London

I’ve been photographing Shareefah’s beautiful children since 2008 when she first booked a session during the family’s annual stay in London over the summer. Since then we’ve done another five sessions – and they are a highlight of my summer. I hadn’t realised, growing up in London, how many people visit for the whole summer but I can see why London is such a popular destination. It’s brilliant for kids and particularly the area around Kensington where Shareefah stays – there are fabulous parks and also the amazing London museums as well as so many family friendly restaurants and other great places to spend time.

This year we decided to visit stunning Holland Park, one of my favourite locations for family photography and a park that I know like the back of my hand. One of the most interesting things about my work is visiting places that I know well and finding new angles and approaches. It’s important to me, and to my clients, that the pictures are unique. We don’t have a shot list and work through a set of poses in the same places each time, that would drive me mad and would mean that the pictures would not have the originality and spontaneity which my clients can expect. Instead we take each day as a new day, see where the children want to go and then approach each game anew. I love it, it’s so much fun to be creative and so much fun to be child led and to see what the little ones come up with.

We started our photo shooot in the playground, which can often be a good idea as it allows the children to relax, especially if they are at the age where ‘cheesy grins’ can be an issue. Also, at 8am we have the playground to ourselves which is so much fun and we can run around and play on all the equipment before moving on to different areas of the park when things begin to get busy. The kids were thrilled with this plan and we had a great time.

From the playground we moved on to have an explore, utilizing the beautiful tree lined paths for good effect, the kids having great fun playing together and finding trees to climb and logs to jump off. A game of hide and seek was a huge success and I will never grow tired of watching children try to hide behind teeny tiny trees, there’s always a cheeky grin to be photographed as they try so hard to stay hidden. I love games like this and will always join in – climbing into the bushes and squeezing into the smallest places to hide like the best of them.

We finished the photo shoot with a quick trip to the swings in the little playground on our way out of the park – after all, you can’t walk past a swing! It was a perfect end to a perfect morning.

If this sounds like the type of photo shoot you and your family would enjoy – relaxed fun resulting in beautiful natural black and white photographs, then do get in touch. There is still availability for the spring and summer and I’d love to hear from you.

To see some more examples of
Family Photography in Holland Park or pictures from Family Vacation Photography in London

I hope you enjoy the pictures
Get in touch to book a shoot