Portrait and Wedding Photographer - Susie Lawrence Photography » Families

A walk on Ilkley Moor with my new camera

susie — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:45:10 +0000

Happy New Year! I haven’t taken or shared nearly enough personal images over the last year. So my (only) New Year’s resolution is to do more of this. The first step was to treat myself to a new camera, a Fujifilm X100. The photographers reading will know about this camera. It’s very compact and incidentally looks beautiful, which in no way swayed me of course, and takes absolutely top quality images, as good as would come out of my D300 with me in charge anyway. I took it out for the first time on Saturday as I persuaded the children and Karl (and Digby, though he needs no persuading) to come out for a walk on Ilkley Moor behind the Cow and Calf rocks. It was a beautiful day, but really cold as you can see from the ice shots and from the frost on the ground. And the low sun made for some challenging photography when I hadn’t worked out properly how to adjust my settings. It’s a good job I’m a fan of flare! But for a first attempt, I was really pleased with what came out. Next, I’m going to read the instructions…

There’s some sort of game bird in the middle of the shot on the left below. Is it a grouse? It was making a funny noise. Anyone who has an X100 will know that tracking moving wildlife isn’t probably what it was made for so even though it’s a technically dreadful photograph (and not the only one, I know! Bear with me, it was my first time…) I see it as a small miracle all things considered. Don’t bother straining your eyes to see it in the shot on the right. It had long gone by the time I panned around a bit.

Yes it’s a shame about the bin bag. Maybe if a client wanted this on their wall I would photoshop it out but life is too short for my blog, sorry…

A very welcome sight at the end of a very chilly adventure. It was a lovely afternoon though. I can’t wait for my next trip out with my X100 and you should be seeing more of my family and what we get to up as a result. Please let me know what you think of this first set.

Changing seasons as children grow up

susie — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:53:57 +0000

Here are regular clients Oliver and Anna. You may remember them from earlier this year (you can see that post by clicking here).We had a fabulous portrait session in their beautiful new garden as they’re recently moved house. It was a wintry day as you’d expect at the moment, but wrapped up warm and with plenty to explore and play with, nobody minded. Fabulous as it was and happy as I am with the resulting photographs, I have to admit that I was very pleased when they told me that they’re going on holiday to France next summer so would like me to do their next session there. As I’m based in the Languedoc for a few weeks each summer, it’s a perfect opportunity to get some lovely relaxed family holiday portraits in the wonderful French light. In the meantime, back to not-so-sunny but equally picturesque Yorkshire and some photography at home.

Oliver has recently started school and was keen to model his cute uniform…

Give a little visual joy this Christmas

susie — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:48:15 +0000

It’s December tomorrow and I’m sure that means it’s OK to talk about Christmas now. I know I’ve just realised that presents need buying soon as time is running out fast. If you’ve got the same dilemma, I’ve put together a seasonal little newsletter with a few suggestions. Note the bit at the bottom – I’ve got some really exciting plans for next year so why not make it your resolution to really make sure you’ve got some wonderful family portraits for posterity? Now, on with the shopping…

Teenagers in ruins! – Bolton Abbey portrait photographs

susie — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 10:04:38 +0000

These girls are just so beautiful it was a complete treat to photograph them at Bolton Abbey. Chiara on the left in this first photograph, is in her last year at school so her mum and dad wanted some portraits to celebrate her coming to the end of her schooldays. Emilia meanwhile is coming up for GCSEs this school year though no strain was showing the day we met! We had a great walk around the Abbey, on the river beach and over the stepping stones. George the dog came along too as he’s very much part of the family. It was hard to pick favourites but here’s a snapshot of what we got up to:

Portraits for a new start

susie — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:35:44 +0000

I had a real treat of a portrait session last week. This gorgeous family is about to embark on a new chapter in their life as they leave Leeds and head to Devon. They told me they are going to keep chickens and have an eco-hot-tub and it sounds like a dream! To remind them of the happy times they’d had while they lived in Yorkshire, we spend a blissful hour in a tucked away corner of Meanwood Park to capture some images of them to make portraits for the walls of their new home. They move today. Good luck! Leeds will miss you but I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful life in Devon. At least the weather might be a bit better, though we did manage to persuade the sun to make a brief appearance for us while we did our session…

We caught a grasshopper! If you look carefully you can see it jumping out of Nicky’s hands…

First birthday deja vu!

susie — Wed, 04 May 2011 13:23:21 +0000

Over the Easter holidays I revisited another portrait client family to photograph them with their new addition. Big brother Rohan was first photographed on his first birthday (you can see that post here), so what better way to celebrate than to record his little brother Eassar on his first birthday too! We spent some time in their lovely garden, which had the most amazing 1920′s railway carriage hidden in a corner (I really coveted that as a studio), then we had a wander in Golden Acre Park. Once again I felt so honoured to go back and make images that show how a family is growing up.

Growing family portraits

susie — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:13:56 +0000

One of my very favourite things is when clients come back to me for more portraits when they’ve added to their family. I photographed Oliver almost exactly two years ago when he was at the age that his baby sister Anna is now. It was fantastic to see how much he’s grown up and what a brilliant big brother he is to Anna. When I first met Oliver he was very advanced in his motor skills and was walking at less than eight months old. This trend is continuing and he’s now two and a half and riding a bike without stabilisers! I wonder what will have happened next time we meet? Tight-rope walking, mono-cycling, juggling… You can see the original post of Oliver’s shoot then here: http://www.susielawrence.com/growing-up-fast/

We started off at the family home before heading off to Horforth Hall Park to explore and play. We were treated to some spring sunshine and lovely smiley children. My job at its very best.

Last time I photographed Oliver I took a shot of him looking out of the window. He stood in the same spot this time and I caught him in an almost identical pose. He’s the original:

And here he is now:

To Russia with Love

susie — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 10:33:33 +0000

I know it’s a cheesy title but I couldn’t resist. This is my gorgeous niece Daniella, known as Dina. I’ve only met her once, which was during the summer when these images were taken, as my brother lives with her and his wife Sveta and stepson Kiril in Moscow. They all came over for a visit and it was great to get to know the latest addition to the family. I grabbed a few portraits while I had the chance. Sorry it’s taken a while Sveta and Mike – I’ve been a bit busy and family has been put to the back of the queue for a while. But I hope you like them and it was worth the wait.

Family portrait session at Bolton Abbey

susie — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 10:37:59 +0000

This extended family got together to celebrate Anne’s 70th birthday with her two daughters’ bringing their husbands and children from Skipton and Guernsey for the occasion. We went to Bolton Abbey to capture all 11 of them. It had been a lovely Autumnal week but we had to make do with slightly gloomy weather although the rain mostly held off. Bolton Abbey had a smattering of pumpkins around it for Halloween so it was a bit spooky and atmospheric. All the children (and the adults) were really cooperative and we had lots of fun getting some informal contemporary style shots along with a few more traditional group portraits at Grandma’s request. Here’s a preview for them before I get back together with the Skipton contingent to show them all:

France meets Norway, meets me! (portrait photographer South of France)

susie — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 08:30:11 +0000

I’m pleased to say that my work is getting very multi-national. We have some lovely new Norwegian neighbours in our village in France who have bravely taken a year out from their life in Norway to renovate their holiday house in the Languedoc. Their two daughters, who have become firm friends with Sasha, Maisie and Jasper, are spending a year in the local village school and will no doubt be fluent at French next time we see them and we’ll all be very jealous and embarrassed by our blundering efforts. I took some portraits of the girls while we were there in the summer holidays. I’d love to do more of this kind of work in the South of France – as you can see the light is just gorgeous and people on holiday are so relaxed and easy to photograph. So for anyone who’s planning a holiday in the Languedoc next summer and would like some stunning art for their holiday house walls, let me know! I’ll be there in a flash (but without my flash as that’s totally unnecessary when working with French light) – on the beach, in the mountains, in rivers and lakes, in the pretty old towns… Having said that, portraits in Yorkshire can actually have great light too. OK so this is France, but these shots were taken at 6pm and early evening is almost always a lovely time for getting great portraits, even in Leeds. Anyway, for now as Autumn arrives in Leeds and the sunshine becomes a hazy memory and the faint hint of tan disappears, here are the beautiful Ida and Mia to keep summer alive for a bit longer. We can’t wait to see you again in October and thank you for modeling so well.

If you look carefully you can see a cobweb in front of the horse’s ear. I think that’s lovely.

They got these two kittens while we were there. They kept escaping and were a bit of a handful the couple of times we cat-sat for them.The black one is called Fluffy. This one they named Susie. I wasn’t sure whether to be offended or flattered but they told me they just liked the name!

The little white blobs are tiny flowers that the girls were throwing up into the air. I think it gives this shot a kind of magical quality.