Helen Bartlett / Family Portraiture

Family photography in Holland Park, West London

10Jul

On the blog today, I’m delighted to share a wonderful selection of images from a recent children’s and family photography shoot in Holland Park. This was my third portrait session with Megumi and her lovely family, and I had been really looking forward to it – I knew we would have a wonderful time, and we absolutely did.

It’s lovely being able to capture photographs for my clients regularly as I get to know the children well over the years, and we have such a lovely time exploring and playing at their favourite places. I always try to mix things up a bit from one session to the next, so we always end up with varied and interesting family photographs and children’s portraits – I aim to get unique and interesting pictures each and every time.

Our first photo shoot back in 2011 took place in Holland Park (do take a look at the blog post from this shoot here) and we have since visited Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park so, for this shoot, we decided to return to Holland Park. It has been so much fun comparing these pictures to our first family shoot in park, which is one of my favourite locations in West London for family photography.

Back in 2011, baby Seiji was only a month old but this time round Seiji is now two and a half years old and running around with his older brother and sister having a whale of a time. Children grow so quickly in the early years that I’m really pleased we’ve had a chance to record so many different stages.

I don’t even know where to begin thinking about my favourite moments in our family photo shoot, as it was such fun from start to finish. I think if I had to pick a few things it would be playing hide and seek around the sculpture, which resulted in the picture I used for our ‘‘Just One’ preview image from this shoot. I just love that picture and the wonderful expressions on all the children’s faces.

I also love the pictures of the three children together, and the family pictures from early on in the shoot. I love the family shot with everyone standing on the log – it’s a formal shot with everyone looking great, and yet there is a quirkiness and humour from the fact that they are all balanced standing on one of the amazing fallen trees that I really love. I like shots like this – it’s formal but also not, using elements from the park to raise pictures from the simple to something a little bit different, a little bit fun, and to something that the children will love to be involved with. As you can imagine, the children just loved standing on the log and thought it hilarious when their parents joined them.

I also loved playing hide and seek in the formal flower garden and finding ladybirds in the rose garden. I love how inquisitive children are and how fascinated by tiny living things.

We had a great time running around and then, of course, we ended up in the playground. I particularly love the playground in Holland Park as it’s got such great apparatus and the children always have such a great time. It’s a great reward for good behaviour on a photo shot and always results in brilliant photographs, too – I particularly love the shot of all three children on the swing.

I’m thrilled with these pictures from our fun-filled, relaxed and creative children’s and family portrait session in Holland Park, West London W11. I hope you will enjoy them too, and if you would be interested in arranging a photo shoot for your own family, do contact us – we would be delighted to hear from you.

For more information please take a look at the page for my work as a Children and Family Photographer in Holland Park W11

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