Helen Bartlett / Family Portraiture

Family Photography at Kenwood House

04May

Kenwood House in Hampstead Makes a Perfect Backdrop for Family Photos

Getting back to my work as a family photographer in London has been such a joy these last few weeks and it was such a pleasure to take family photos at Kenwood House in beautiful Hampstead.  Since things began to open up in April it’s been full steam ahead photographing families around the city.  I’ve revisited so many of my favourite parks and open spaces as I’ve rediscovered London, camera in hand and with incredible subjects to photograph.  It’s been an exhilarating, and exhausting, joy to be out with my camera again.

Now as the rain patters on the window I’m in my office catching up on some processing, another part of the business that I really enjoy. It’s such fun looking over the pictures, choosing the best and getting them ready to show to my clients.  It’s always an exciting feeling to download the memory cards and look through the images, seeing which ones have come together exactly how I envisaged them in my head.  Today’s ‘Just One’ is one that worked perfectly and which I worked hard to get.  Images like this are often the result of effort, an idea in my mind and then time spent working on angles before the final piece of the puzzle comes into play, Lady Luck, as a child jumps in just the right place, at just the right height, with just the right expression, and everything comes together.

This was my first shoot back and one that I was really looking forward to.  I’d met this wonderful family a number of years ago and their shoot had always stuck in my mind as we’d had such a brilliant time.  I remember getting a lift home from that first shoot and trying to persuade the family to move to Crouch End so we could hang out together more, it was one of those glorious days I didn’t want to end.  I was so excited to be seeing them again and it didn’t disappoint, it was another fabulous day.  A cold start was rewarded with incredible light and Kenwood House looked magical as a backdrop to our family photos, bathed in light with this wonderful dramatic sky.  The sunshine was a challenge of course, but I do love a challenge and here the balance has worked perfectly with the shaded foreground and dramatic sunlit backdrop.

We had the most amazing time and I’m thrilled with the pictures, there are so many that I love and I can’t wait to show them all and see which ones the family pick as their favourites.

I hope you enjoyed seeing today’s sneak preview from my recent family photo shoot by Kenwood House in Hampstead. Do check back on the blog as I’ll be sharing more pictures from recent shoots over the next few days.