Just One – children’s portrait photography in St Albans, Herts

I’m thrilled to share this portrait of two fabulous fun-filled brothers on the blog today, a picture that makes me laugh to look at – which is always a good thing! Today’s ‘Just One’ preview image is from my recent shoot with Peter and his brilliant family in St Albans in Hertfordshire. I hadn’t seen Peter for about ten years when we arranged this family shoot, so I was really looking forward to catching up. Peter had been at university with my eldest brother and it was lovely to see him again and meet his family – we had such a great morning together.

As always, it was an early start – 5am has been my regular wake-up call this summer as it works so brilliantly for children; when I arrive at 8am, everyone is in such a good mood, the day stretches ahead of us and we tend to have the best of the weather too, which is always a bonus. We started our day out in the garden; I could see immediately why Peter and his family had moved to their house as the garden was just incredible, with plenty of space for sports and fun activities like a massive trampoline (more on that in my extended blog post soon) and some lovely mature trees to climb. I love photographing children climbing trees – it’s that combination of beautiful light, a great background, the children’s looks of glee and achievement, and the slight hint of danger which adds a certain brilliant thrill – children always have such great expressions when they are climbing trees.

Today’s ‘Just One’ preview is one of these moments with great expressions, lovely soft light, and a really simple yet strong composition. We had ventured around to the front of the house where ’the best’ climbing tree was situated. The boys climbed up, as nimble as monkeys darting from branch to branch, with the excited hum of chatter and giggles as they went. I took pictures as they reached for high branches, hung upside down and laughed down at me, so pleased they were able to climb the tree with their parents looking on happy and proud, laughing at their children’s good humour and infectious laughter.

This image started as a portrait of Freddie but within seconds, it became a sibling shot as Sam lent in too, laughing and happy. It’s a lovely photograph – I love the spontaneous nature of it with the unusual composition of Sam upside down, hanging from a higher branch as well as the boys’ expressions and their free, unselfconscious smiles as they had fun having their pictures taken.

I’m so pleased to be sharing this preview image from our family and children’s portrait photo shoot in St Albans – I do hope you enjoy it, and I look forward to sharing some more pictures from our wonderful morning on the blog soon.