What happens when it rains on a family photo shoot?

Today on the blog I’ll be answering that question, and I’m thrilled to be sharing some pictures from family photo shoot in February where the weather did not go according to plan. This was such a great session and one of those days where the unexpectedness of the day definitely added to the fun.  I’m thrilled with the results, and I hope you will enjoy them too. If you have ever wondered, ‘what happens if it rains on the day of my photo shoot’ I hope these pictures will put your mind at rest, you will see that we have an amazing time whatever the weather!

A joyful day in February

As a family photographer with over twenty-three years’ experience, I pride myself on being unflappable. I work with children, and nothing ever goes quite according to plan. It’s the thing I enjoy most if I’m honest; the unexpectedness of a day, the challenges, the humour in the chaos of life with young children. This was one of those days where it was all about the unexpected and I LOVED IT!

Starting at the park

We had arranged to meet at Kew Gardens, one of my favourite places for a family photo shoot with its beautiful landscaping and all the interesting areas which make for an incredible location. The weather forecast was great.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast was also wrong, and it was a very cold and very dark day when we arrived. Undaunted we headed in and it wasn’t long before the little one was out of her buggy and beginning to explore.

It wasn’t long after that when the heavens opened, and the rain began to pour down!

Taking the unexpected in our stride

It was one of those days when you can only laugh as we rushed for the coffee shop, toddler in tow as the rain pelted us. One of the best things about Kew is that there are plentiful areas for coffee although my path finding might not have been the best as we didn’t go the quickest route, one day I’ll memorise that map!

Not long after we were settled on a table, coffees in hand and the world was looking a much better place and our little subject had reestablished her equilibrium with a giant babyccino, happiness in a mug.

Thinking on our feet

As regular readers will know I always do my family photo shoots in the mornings and one of the reasons for this is that it gives flexibility. We have the time and the opportunity to regroup and restructure our day if something doesn’t go according to plan, as was the case here with the weather.

We decided to call it a day at Kew and instead head home, let the little one have their midday nap in the car, grab some lunch and start again. It was the best plan and had wonderful results.

Natural light family portraits indoors

It was a dark day and at first glance it might have seemed that there wasn’t much light indoors. However, and this is the joy of modern cameras and lenses, there was enough of it, and what there was was beautiful. Soft pockets of light near the windows gave incredible opportunities for a lovely variety of images.

All these pictures were taken with the Canon EOS R5 Mark II and the superlative new Canon RF 35mm f1.4L (which I’ll be writing about more in a future blog post), the combination is incredible and meant I could create images that would have been impossible with older equipment. This is one of the reasons I like to use the best equipment available.

We started off by playing in the living room, doing some drawings playing in the ball pit. The light from the window gave glorious soft illumination.

Watching this little one playing with her parents was so joyful, these are the moments where memories are made and I’m so happy she will have these images to look back on in future.

Utilising opportunities

When working indoors, I like to move around the house, finding different areas and keeping the photo shoot moving with different games and activates. This ensures that little ones don’t get bored and that we have an incredibly varied set of images at the end of the day.

Peek-a-boo

A game of Peek-a-boo provided the most delightful little sequence of images which will look amazing framed together and are sure to make everyone smile for many years to come.

Rainy day photo shoot

When I left it was still raining, and it was a tired and happy little one I left behind me after an amazing days photography.

While it wasn’t the photo shoot we had planned I think the results are fantastic and potentially more interesting than we might have got being outside all morning. After all, home is where the heart is, and having all these memories is something very special for the future.

Next time we can play in the park but I’m glad we did an indoor photo shoot this time around, these are some of my favourite pictures I’ve taken in a long time, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Book your photo shoot now!

I hope you have enjoyed today’s blog post and feel that it answers your question of ‘what would happen if it rains on my photo shoot?’

If you would like to arrange a photo shoot for your family, do get in touch, I’d love to hear from you.