Helen Bartlett / Family Portraiture

Indoor Family Photography Wandsworth SW12

28Jan

This was my third shoot with Olivia and her fantastic family and I had been looking forward to it for ages. I was so thrilled to hear that Baby Ursula had now joined the family and a new photo shoot was required to update the family gallery.

When I first started photographing children and families I was always keen to do all my pictures outdoors, but as the years have passed and my experience and skills have grown I’m really enjoying doing part of a session indoors. The family home is such an important space for children, their bedrooms and their toys, the games they love to play and things they love to do. It’s wonderful to record these.

So we started our session indoors, the children rolling around on their parent’s bed where they enjoy playing each day. The older girls had such fun entertaining their baby sister and she was quite happy snuggling with them as the adults finished getting ready for the photos.

Then we headed out to nearby Wandsworth Common, one of my favourite spots for children and family photography. As it was quite a grey day and we were up and out so early we had the heath to ourselves – the girls were particularly happy to have sole use of the playground. Swings were a massive favourite with Ursula and her sisters pushing her backwards and forwards has resulted in some lovely shots of the girls together. I love these pictures that show something happening, especially when it’s older siblings entertaining their younger ones, they always remind me of how lucky I have been to have three older brothers who have all looked after me and entertained me so much over the years.

When it began to get a little cold we headed back indoors for drinks and snacks and some more pictures. The older girls were very keen to show me their marble run, set up safely in their bedroom away from the hands of baby Ursula who was just at the age where she would eat marbles as soon as look at them. The light was lovely and it was really fun to take pictures that capture the look of concentration as the runs were created and the marbles flowed down.

I’m always alert when I’m photographing children as often my favourite pictures come in-between activities or even when we are moving between one area of the house and another. The shots of Ursula choosing books really make me smile and they were just on our way from one room to another.

Playing on the parents bed is clearly one of the girls favourite activities and who was I to complain when the game moved from playing under the sheets to, what was clearly the very best thing ever, jumping from the window sill onto the bed. Checking with their parents I discovered that this is a favourite activity and so I had a great time working to get the very best pictures. I love these shots, some of my absolute favourites of recent times.

We finished with some pictures at the piano; the older girls are both learning to play and Ursula didn’t want to be left out. Great fun and great memories for all involved. These indoor family photographs are very special and capturing play in a documentary fashion leads to picture that will be treasured as the years pass.

I hope you like this selection of images from our family photo shoot in Wandsworth. If you would like to book your own session or have any questions about how I work then please get in touch, I’d love to hear from you.

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