Helen Bartlett / Family Portraiture

Children and family photographer in Herne Hill and Brockwell Park, London SE24

30Jul

Today’s blog post features an extended selection of images from Mette’s recent shoot in Herne Hill and Brockwell Park, South London. We recently blogged a Just One preview image from this children and family photography session in Herne Hill and we hope you will enjoy seeing a few more pictures.

I have been lucky enough to have been photographing Mette and her family since Karoline was a newborn baby and it’s one of the shoots I look forward to most each year. I know it will always be so much fun as Mette has such a lovely, fun and lively family which always leads to really fabulous and intersesting sessions.

I always think it’s such a relaxing way to take children and family portrait photographs – working at home and at the children’s favourite places, often their favourite parks. We get to do their favourite things and take photographs that really captures how they are as children and the things that really mark out their personalities – whether it is exuberance and noise, or a more quiet and calm approach to life. Each child is unique and taking individual portraits that really bring out what makes them individuals is one of the best parts of my job as a children and family photographer.

This session started at Mette’s beautiful Herne Hill home, again a space that has developed over the years, as extensions have been built and rooms have changed purpose. It’s so much fun to be taking pictures in the children’s bedrooms remembering them when they were spare rooms with different furniture and fittings. It’s lovely to record these changes and I believe that having a pictorial record of these things is wonderful for the children – those moments as you grow up when you suddenly remember how things were before. For me personally, I wish we had some pictures of the truly astonishing wallpaper I had in my room as a child – green birds on one wall, pink and green birds on another, and pink gingham on the third! As the youngest child, I had the room where all the odds and ends of old wallpaper had been used – you wouldn’t see that nowadays in the era of Ikea and cheap paint!

We had a great time at home, playing indoors with trains and books then outdoors for a bit of gardening. Then it was off to the park – it was a beautiful day in Brockwell Park in Herne Hill, South London and I was very impressed by some of the improvements that have recently been made to the park. It was always a great location for children and family photography sessions, but now it is a truly fabulous location! We played in the flowers at the edge of one of the fields and then explored the kitchen garden. I love the formality of traditional kitchen gardens with the paths between beds and the fascinating selections of flowers. The children enjoyed running up and down, sniffing the flowers, looking at insects, climbing the wisteria and generally doing all the things kids love while I captured children and family photographs, concentrating on individual portraits and shots as everyone interacting together and had fun.

We finished in the children’s playground that looks amazing now – lots of wonderful new wooden climbing frames and one of those fabulous musical xylophones that you walk on. They always remind me of Tom Hanks in the film Big – I guess that shows that I grew up in the 1980s!

It was a fabulous morning and I am thrilled with the pictures. I hope you enjoy looking at this selection of images from our children and family portrait photography session in Herne Hill and Brockwell Park, South London.

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