Helen Bartlett / Family Portraiture

Family Photography in Islington – Just One

05Dec

From the moment I received Dilveer’s enquiry about family photography I had been looking forward to our portrait session in Islington. Dilveer wanted a photo shoot to ‘remember the good times’ which, in my view, is a perfect reason for having family pictures taken. Pictures that record every day life, the places we go and the things we do are the pictures that have so much resonance as we grow older. As I type this I look up at my wall behind my computer and the pictures of my family there, long walks in the forest visiting my granny or playing in the local park and studies of my brother and I engaged in complex plasticine animations that filled so many school holidays. It’s the every day images that I like to look at on a daily basis and I love to record these little things for my clients by taking a documentary approach to our photo shoots.

Todays’ Just One is, I hope, the kind of picture that Alex may hang on his wall when he is my age, a photo that sums up the hilarity of this wonderful family and the fun they have together.

When I took this picture Alex was having a fantastic time riding on the Daddy Donkey and I loved the way he used his father’s ears to steer, I seem to remember that a similar approach is taken when riding elephants! I love how you get such a feel for the fast paced fun in this image, Alex leaning back yanking to the right and Mark’s face, hilarious as he laughs alongside his son. I love the architecture in the background showing the street near the family home and the slope of the buildings echoing the triangular shape of the dynamic composition.

It’s just the type of image that I love to take, a picture that is so personal to a family – a game that is played so often and a game, which, I’m sure, they will all remember as the years go by. An image anchored in a familiar place and that seems to me to fit the brief, ‘remembering the good times’, a picture that can’t fail to raise a smile.

I hope you like it as much as I do, today’s Just One from my recent family photography session in Islington.

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