Underwater Fun on a Family Photo Shoot

I had a fantastic day photographing some of my favourite subjects at their new home in High Wycombe. This was our twelfth session and I’m pleased to say that I think it’s been our best one yet and that’s against some stiff competition as we’ve had so many brilliant days over the years.

Annual sessions are always a real favourite for me, I love to see how the children have grown and changed and to see what are their favourite things at a particular point in time. One of the things I’ve always loved about these sessions is how we’ve always made a big effort to incorporate the activities that are favourites for the girls each year. We’ve had the year of tennis, of netball, the year of music, years where we have gone on London adventures – the London Eye and biscuit decorating – so many different things and each one allowing the creation of interesting and unique images that together build up a wonderful document of childhood.

Every year we create an album that the girls will be able to enjoy as adults, a beautiful record of their lives as they grow up. We also made stunning frames for the walls which together hang in a fabulous gallery making everyone smile each and every day.

This year was all about the garden at the new house, a stunning space with mature trees and beautiful planting as well as fun games and, my favourite, a swimming pool. It was a grey day with beautiful soft light for our photo shoot and I love the flexibility this gave for angle and background without having to search for elusive patches of shade.

We played swing ball and did some archery – a fun challenge to get a shot with the arrow in the air. We jumped on the trampoline which, because it was dug into the ground, meant I wasn’t working around any nets which allowed for fun photographs with lovely clean backgrounds, just perfect.

Giant Jenga was such good fun. I’ve always love playing and photographing this game. It’s visually really interesting as well as always resulting in such great expressions as everyone tries hard to get the elusive supporting piece out and create the highest tower and the one most likely to topple on a sibling. This kind of competitive game always results in such fun pictures, action shots to raise a smile.

We did some pictures in the house too, in the girls TV room where I know many evenings will be spent, popcorn in hand, watching movies together with their parents, the stuff that memories are made of and the perfect place for a giant beanbag fight.

A few years ago I bought an underwater housing for my camera and it’s something I love to have the opportunity to play with. I don’t get to use it as often as I would like – you need your own pool of course – but it’s such fun when we do get to play.

It’s like a giant sandwich bag – a little nerve wracking to put my expensive Canon camera in – but always worth it. This is something I’m always happy to add on at the end of a photo shoot if you have your own pool, the kids always really enjoy it and the resulting images can be such a beautiful addition to your pictures,

I think the shot which opens this blog might be one of my all-time favourite underwater pictures that I’ve taken. I just love the girls’ expressions, laughing so happily together. They are such wonderful sisters, such great friends and two of my favourite people. It’s such a privilege to be part of their lives and photograph them every year, I’m so very lucky in my job.

If you like the pictures you have seen here today and like the idea of building a collection of images to record your children’s lives, images for you all to treasure over the years, then do get in touch. I’m taking bookings up until Christmas and into the New Year and I’m expecting the next few months to be very busy. Drop me a line and we can plan the perfect photo shoot for your family, I look forward to photographing you all.