Relaxed Portrait of Older Children and Teenagers – Just One

I’m photographing more teenagers than ever as I have been photographing children and families professionally for over thirteen years. The children I first met as tiny babies are at secondary school and discussions about the Charlie and Lola and In the Night Garden have been replaced by discussions of GCSE options and the best books by David Williams and Suzanne Collins. It’s great fun photographing older children and so I was thrilled when Sarah arranged a session for her three children in Kensington in West London.

I was even more thrilled when I arrived to find we knew so many people in common, lots of my regular clients have children at the same school as Sarah’s middle son, it’s always lovely to have friends in common, I know I will have a brilliant time.

We had such an excellent morning. The kids were absolutely brilliant and so relaxed in front of the camera. We started with a trip to Holland Park and began in the playground to get everyone relaxed – at 8am there was nobody else there and so we piled all three children onto the zip-wire and the giant swing to get some great action shots.

Exploring the park we had such fun and it was lovely to have the family dog with us too – Bolly had a great time playing with the children and chasing her ball. I loved chatting and hearing about the children’s lives. Hannah had just finished her first year at boarding school and I loved hearing about it all – especially the all important subject of ‘Tuck’ which always seemed so important from Malory Towers and the wonderful new Murders Most Unladylike series.

After the park we came back home for cake and tea and to take some pictures indoors. The children showed me their bedrooms and we chilled out in the drawing room for a while. I chose this image as a just one as it really encapsulates so much about being a teenager. Just chilling out with siblings, no longer always playing with toys but instead lazing about and chatting. I love how Lucas is balanced on the back of the sofa, it used to be my favourite place too, especially as it was forbidden ‘you will break the sofa’ my parents would cry, I’m not sure if it was really allowed here either, but that’s all part of the appeal.

I’m so pleased with this picture, one of so many great shots from this wonderful session with these incredibly cool children. I’ll share some more in due course, but in the meantime I hope you enjoy this picture from my recent family session with older children and teenagers in Kensington in West London.

For more pictures do take a look at my gallery of
Family Photography in Holland Park and the gallery of family photographs with older children and teenagers in London