When I’m photographing families I always aim to have the photos look as natural as possible. It’s one of the reasons that I usually prefer to work on location with kids. They can have fun playing in a park or another favourite location without being corralled into an artificial studio environment.

Sometimes when a client wants some studio style images we’ll start at the studio then move to a location later. Even then I like to keep the shots looking as natural as possible. I’m not a big fan of the white-background look that is so prevalent nowadays.

Annita came to the studio with her lovely children Lexie and Jake. We started by making some relaxed portraits on the studio floor just using natural light before moving to a local park to finish the shoot.  They aren’t due to come back to see their pictures for a few more days but I can’t resist sharing a few here.  Hope you like them.

Family friend Alice came along too. Here’s a portrait of her, taken on location:

Capturing natural pictures of babies is one of my favourite things to do. Although we’ve got a fully equipped studio I much prefer to photograph babies at their home. That way if baby needs to be changed, or have a sleep or a feed it’s no problem. Much less stressful for the baby and for the parents too. I couldn’t imagine ever adopting the production-line approach of some studios. You get your hour slot and that’s that. What happens if baby is off form, or they get stressed out by the whole studio experience?

I photographed twins Alex and Ava at their home in North London. Although you can’t tell in these pictures Alex really wasn’t feeling herself. So I’m going back in a few days to do another session with them. I’m always happy to reschedule or come back and do another shoot at no charge if for some reason baby isn’t in the mood for photographs. Stuff happens

Here’s a sneak preview of a few of my favourites from the first shoot. More to come

Hannah and Ollie came to the studio last week for their pre-wedding photo shoot. Pre-wedding days are always great fun and this was no exception. After a coffee and a chat we headed off to our favourite location for a couple of hours making fun photographs.  Every couple has slightly different tastes so we always try a few different styles of shot to see what works best for them.  Hannah and Ollie liked the relaxed natural style but were also up for a few edgier shots with a fashion twist.  Look forward to putting those ideas into practice in a few weeks at South Farm

Here’s a few of Hannah and Ollie’s favourites: