Family Photo Shoot in Oxted in Surrey

Family photo shoot locations can be like buses, you might not visit an area for ages and then three come along at once. So, for the second time in a week I jumped on an early train to Oxted in Surrey which is fast becoming one of my favourite places for family photography with beautiful locations and lovely people.

While my last family photography session in Oxted was with a family I’ve been working with for years, today’s shoot was with some lovely new clients and what a brilliant time we had.  We’d first spoken at the beginning of 2020, planning a session to record their family lives and their joyful little girls.  Then the pandemic hit, and it got forgotten until this year when contact was made again and we booked our family photo shoot in Oxted, it was worth the wait.

I was so excited to be meeting this lovely family, they sounded so fun from emails and from the phone conversation we’d had before our shoot. When I arrived, I was greeted with excited girls and a plethora of cuddly unicorns who I was introduced to as I downed a cup of coffee and we made a plan for our morning.

We had chosen a couple of different locations for our photo shoot to take in places that were important to the family, and which would be full of memories for the girls when they look back on the pictures in the future.

We started our family photo shoot with a walk to some nearby fields where the girls love to play.  The spring flowers were in full bloom and it was a carpet of beautiful buttercups with lovely long grass which was such fun to play in. I love utilising all the wonder that nature can bring, and I particularly enjoyed mixing up my angle to make the most of the opportunities.

We had a brilliant time running around, swinging the kids and even playing the Hokey-Cokey, reminding me of barn dances of my childhood and how that was a game (or is it a dance?) that I hadn’t thought about or years.

I love to take images that really capture the fun and excitement of a photo shoot especially when photographing children who are so full of energy as these amazing two girls. They were hilarious, running everywhere, laughing together (as long as nobody lost a race of course) and generally having a great time.

I used a slow shutter speed to show the movement and then swapped to a fast shutter speed for perfect sharpness as they ran.  I love both approaches and enjoy mixing it up for my clients in the selection of images I create for them.

Mid-morning we went home for a quick snack and a drink before heading out for the second half of our session to a local wood that was a real favourite with the family.

Woodland was perfect as by this time in the morning the sun was beaming down and it had got very bright – the field was perfect in the overcast early morning. At this point we wanted shade, and the soft light was lovely on everyone’s faces.

We had such fun playing in the dens we found and having a fantastic game of hide and seek among the magnificent trees. I love woodland, it’s my favourite place to work and these girls were the perfect subjects, hilarious and joyful and full of fun.

For the final section of our family photo shoot in Oxted we went home to embrace the heat and play in a sprinkler – my first water filled family photo shoot of the year.  As regular readers will know I love water play and the joy that it brings when photographing the little ones.

Mixing water and bubbles seemed the dream combination and the dark hedge that bordered the garden made a brilliant backdrop to these graphic light-filled images. Bright sunlit gardens can be hard for photography, the secret is knowing what types of images work well in this kind of light and going for those.

It was a brilliant end to a brilliant family photography session in Oxted in Surrey and I’m so thrilled with all the images I’ve taken.

Today I’ve shared a few highlights and I look forward to sharing the full selection with this wonderful family very soon.

If you would like to book your own family photography session for this summer then do get in touch, I only have the capacity for one or one more session in July and August is getting busier too so don’t delay and drop me a message today and we can plan the perfect family photo shoot for your family. I look forward to hearing from you.