Helen Bartlett / Family Portraiture

Holland Park baby photographer – Just One – Elliott

24Jul

I love the creative challenge involved in photographing babies and families. As well as ensuring that I capture the personality of my little clients, each day involves looking for new and exciting compositions. For this reason, I love Holland Park as a location for photographing babies and families. For such a small park it offers a huge variety of photographic options. I love the fact that one moment you can be walking in the trees feeling you could be lost in the countryside, and the next, find yourself in a formal Japanese garden looking at the fish. It is possible to play hide and seek in the rose garden and football on the playing fields. There are play areas for all different ages and swings placed against a lovely clean background. The photographer in me loves these little details making Holland Park truly one of my favourite places for baby and family photography.

I was thrilled when Sylvia booked her photography session with ten month old Elliott and we planned to go to Holland Park for the photos. Arriving early, as is my wont, I took a few pictures of Elliott at home before we set out. Elliott was such fun, immediately interested in the camera and crawling over to see what was going on. I love it when babies and children are really interested in the camera. The way that they look, quizzically, directly at the lens results in such lovely pictures. I think the combination of the reflections in the lens and the satisfying clicking of the shutter helps to focus children’s attention in a fun way.

Today’s Just One is an outdoor shot taken in one of my favourite areas of Holland Park just near the formal garden where the sculpture is (for those of you who don’t know the park, the sculpture is changed regularly). Over the years, I have taken pictures with so many different creations including some particularly cool pieces, including a box with a hole in and mirrored obelisks which made me think of Callanish on the Isle of Lewis for some reason. Today, there was a large marble shape looking sensuous and beautiful in the morning light. The piece, HOLD, by contemporary Norwegian artist, Julia Vance, immediately caught Elliott’s attention.

I love the tactility of marble sculptures. Elliott was so happy exploring, first looking inside and through at Sylvia and me and, later, climbing inside while laughing and giggling with joy. This picture is the one that caught my eye as I feel it captures Elliott’s inquisitive nature. This natural curiosity was such an appealing aspect of Elliot’s personality. It really grabbed me during our photo shoot. Laughing and smiling , he was so keen to explore everything, to crawl around, to look at flowers and to play with the camera. He was consistently alert, his eyes burning with interest What is more, I love the circular shapes in the image as a whole and the way the light moves around inside the structure bringing everything together and forming a really interesting composition.

I do hope you like it too, today’s Just One from our family and baby session in Holland Park.

For another example of my work as a

Baby Photographer in Notting Hill and Holland Park

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