Extended Family Photo Shoot in Orpington

The more the merrier for a big family photo shoot

I love a big family photo shoot. I’m one of four children and some of my happiest childhood memories are of time spent with my cousins. Playing games in their garden, swimming in their pool, causing havoc as our parents relaxed and watched the mayhem.

This absolutely joyful family photo shoot reminded me of those days as two families came together – grandmother, her two sons, their wives and children, everyone together, everyone having fun and a beautiful day too. What a fabulous recipe for a family photo shoot!

Games and fun

I arrived early and started with my hosts family before the cousins arrived. The children, who I had first photographed ten years ago, were an utter joy and it was great to catch with what they have been doing since I last saw them.

Playing games is a great way to break the ice and get children to relax, especially teenagers, and so football and tennis were immediately incorporated and resulted in some wonderful pictures.

Cousins

Mid-morning the cousins arrived, and we did some family group shots. When everyone is together it’s great to get pictures with everyone in, something for the mantlepiece that you can look back on. I like a mix of the formal with the informal and it’s a pleasure to take pictures that will have such importance to a family over the years.

Finding the tiny patches of shade to give us beautiful flattering light we made sure to get all the different combinations.

Portraits

As well as the group shots it’s lovely to take portraits of everyone as the day goes by, adults and children and I’m sure some of these images will end up in big frames on the wall.

I love chatting to the kids as we take their portraits, and I particularly enjoyed discussing literature and classics with one of the children. When someone arrives at a photo shoot holding a copy of Anna Karenia I know we’re going to have lots in common.

Forgetting the camera

With teenagers especially it’s good to get active so we can forget the camera and discovering that ball games, particularly ‘Piggy in the middle’ were favourites, I immediately realised we needed to play.

It was such fun, as everyone ran around laughing, hugging, running, jumping, so many beautiful moments leapt out at me.

Swimming

We finished with swimming. I’d asked in advance if there might be a pool and was thrilled to hear that there was and that the kids would be hoping to swim.  Packing my underwater gear I was thrilled to add that to our photo shoot as an unexpected treat for the families I was photographing.

Itwas such fun and has added a wonderful extra dimension to this fabulous photo shoot. I hope the families love the pictures as much as I do.