I first met Marina back in 2011 for a family photography session in Kensington, I can hardly believe that is six years ago and the family has now grown from one child to four children. It was so wonderful to see everyone again for this, our fourth photo shoot, and to record a wonderful day in this fun photo shoot in Kensington. As regular readers will know I’m the youngest of four children myself and so I love photographing big families. There is a great dynamic photographing a family with four children; it’s noisy, chaotic and so much fun. Growing up in a big family I’m not fazed at all but the dynamics of siblings, the mix of fierce protection, strong bonds of love, and often an element of competition as little ones know which buttons to press to wind each other up. This is all part of family life and you can be sure that I will always provide you with fantastic photos of your big family groups as well as all the story-telling images that show your family having fun together.
We had a fantastic morning together, after a few photographs at home while the final bits of breakfast were being eaten and everyone finished getting ready we headed out to the park. I like to start early and often end up with beautiful photographs as the last bits of preparation take place and the children get used to me before the main photo shoot starts. In this case Elijah and the twins had met me a number of times before but I was a new friend for baby David and he took to the camera immediately, enjoying the attention as he played with the musical instruments in the toy box.
We took a few family shots indoors too, the light in Marina’s Kensington home is fantastic and it seemed a great idea to utilise this for a couple of relaxed family groups. Then we headed out and walked the short distance to Kensington Gardens, one of London’s most beautiful parks and a fabulous spot for pictures. It was lovely having space for the four children to run around and beautiful weather was a bonus for this big family group portrait session.
I love the shots of the family together on the hillside, as always I make sure to take some group shots with everyone facing the camera as these shots are so important to have but, the shots I always love the most, and which my clients come back to me for again and again are the pictures that show the interactions and relationships between family members, pictures shot in a photojournalistic style, that record in a documentary fashion the fun of family life. Watching Marina and Stefan show the children how to make grass flutes and seeing how the boys all reacted, trying themselves, talking, laughing, creates such beautiful pictures as do the family football shots, each child showing their personality as everyone is photographed together, but not posing in this lovely example of family photojournalism.
We had such a great time, playing games, rolling down hills, telling jokes. We even ended up doing some boxing as the boys were so mesmerised by a personal training session going on and the coach was kind enough to let them have a go with the gloves, the boys loved it.
We had such a great time and I love how you can really see the personalities of all four boys in the pictures. We have images that show this big family with four children having a wonderful time on their family photo shoot in Kensington.
If you would like to arrange your own photo shoot for a big family or a small one, I love to photograph them all and it would be lovely to hear from you. I’m taking bookings up until Christmas and the autumn does get very booked up so let’s get you into the diary and create some fabulous pictures for your family.
