Family Photography in Lyme Regis – Just One

This summer seems to have passed by in a brief whirlwind. It feels like only yesterday that the holidays were starting and now the children are back at school and the weather seems to be reminding us that autumn is almost here. I’m still hoping we will see a few more weeks of summer yet – I’m not ready to get out my waterproofs. So instead of going out in the sunshine today I shall post a summery picture, a Just One from my recent and fabulous beach session in Lyme Regis in Dorset with the wonderful Sophia.

This was my third shoot with the family and I was really looking forward to it, especially when we chose Lyme Regis for the location. Lyme Regis is a seaside town I know well having visited there a number of times on holiday with friends and family. It’s a beautiful place with a lovely, well kept, beach and lots of interesting things to do. It’s clearly a family favourite for Sophia and Victoria too and I was really looking forward to photographing them doing all their favourite things.

I arrived the night before so I could have a walk around and remind myself of all the different locations and also discover if there was going to be any exciting summer beach activities that might affect where we could shoot. As it was the carnival ‘freezing sock competition’ wasn’t going to get in our way but we did have to enter, I mean, who wouldn’t enter that? For those who haven’t come across this beach game before, and I certainly hadn’t, it was such a good idea. All the children were given a sock, tied in a knot and frozen in a block of ice. The first person to get the sock out of the ice, untied, and onto their foot won a substantial prize. Sounds easier than it was. The children couldn’t bash the ice against the wall or take it down to the sea, they had to use their body heat to melt it. On a lovely hot day it looked great fun and it’s a game I’m going to bear in mind if I ever need to organize a party game for a bunch of teenagers in the future.

Back to the photo shoot and today’s Just One, a lovely vibrant picture from our fantastic game of hide and seek. Lyme Regis is fantastic as there is a lot of variety in quite a small area. The sandy beach gets busy early in the day (we were the first people on there after meting at 8am and had a lovely time making Sophia into a sand mermaid before the crowds arrived). There is also the fossil beach further along, quieter and really interesting. There are lots of fabulous painted beach huts at the top of the fossil beach and we had an amazing time playing hide and seek.

Our last session two years ago had also featured hide and seek and we had had a brilliant time and so I was really pleased to hear that Sophia was looking forward to playing again. We had such a great time, squeezing between the beach huts and trying to duck down below their front terraces.

This picture is one of my favourites and I’m not sure what Sophia is laughing at more, finding me or the fact that I had got stuck squeezing myself and my rather cumbersome cameras into a space more appropriate for someone half my size. Definitely worth the squeeze for the picture though and I love Sophia’s expression, full of laughter as she finds my hiding space. It was easy to choose this image as my Just one and I hope you like it as much as I do, this fun summer portrait from our family photography session in Lyme Regis in Dorset.