Portrait and Wedding Photographer - Susie Lawrence Photography » Families

Portrait shoot in Roundhay Park

susie — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:39:32 +0000

Roundhay Park is one of my favourite places for portrait shoots and as it’s loved by so many families in Leeds I’m there a lot. Every time I find somewhere new to get some lovely informal family portraits and this time was no exception. Maddie and Joel and their mum and dad were great sports and we made the most of the sunshine by having a play and an explore. Here are a few of my favourites from the session.

Lively children portrait photography!

susie — Fri, 07 May 2010 16:34:29 +0000

Well these three gorgeous children were a challenge! Harrison, Ellis and Marcie weren’t still for a second and did the opposite of what I asked them – so I started to ask them to do the opposite of what I wanted, and it sometimes worked! But they were fantastic to photograph. Each one of them has a very definite individual personality and they are a really lovely family. We had a lot of fun and I hope their parents will be pleased with the resulting portraits.
I managed to get one of them sitting together, which if you had seen them, you would agree is completely miraculous

But most of the time I had to duck and jump to get out of the way…

There was a bit of ‘photograph the hand’ to contend with!

But boy could they pose when they put their minds to it (well actually they didn’t know they were doing it)…

Apparently this amazing oak tree in their garden is listed as the second biggest tree in York! (They aren’t allowed to chop it down)

And finally I got them again, just! They tired me out, but it was fantastic

18th birthday portrait

susie — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 12:40:39 +0000

Greta is 18 this week and her mum decided the occasion deserved to be recorded with a family portrait session. Greta was a fantastic model, as was her brother James and although neither of them really wanted to be there to start with as they couldn’t understand why getting family photographs taken in Roundhay Park was a good idea, I think I won them over a little and we got some great shots. I hope they even secretly enjoyed themselves a bit.

Greta and James are obviously both gorgeous-looking. When you meet their parents you see why. As an aside, I watched the second part of Kay Mellor’s ‘A Passionate Woman’ with Billie Piper (who was brilliant I thought), which was set and filmed in Leeds, while I was processing these last night. As I was working on this shot, the exact same scene with the fountain in the background appeared in the drama as the characters were taking a walk round the lake in Roundhay Park. Spooky!

60th birthday surprise portrait present

susie — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:15:56 +0000

I was asked to go to a village near Cambridge to photograph Chris’s 60th birthday family celebration. His daughter Emilie-Marie had arranged the portrait session as a surprise so that her parents could always have a record of all her siblings and their families together. It was a great day, with lots of fun and family affection to photograph as all the grand-children are still quite little and very cute! I haven’t been able to blog some of the group shots or any of Chris and Rosie with their family as one of the individual families didn’t want to appear on the blog. I’ll always check and get written permission before publishing images and respect what I’m told and sometimes a session won’t appear on here at all if clients are uncomfortable with having their images made public for whatever reason. So there’s really half a story here but it gives a taste of the day and I hope it will wet all the families’ appetites for seeing the full set. There’s a real mixed bag of indoor and outdoor, traditional group portraits, relaxed shots and moments where everyone completely forgot I was there.

I really love this first image. This little boy had a real poise and calm about him and I think you can see it.

This is his little sister. She’s fierce! And super-cute too.

Their cousin was equally adorable and into the bubbles.

The proud grandparents, recorded for posterity.

Emilie-Marie and her fiance Richard.

Granddad had one big firework candle instead of sixty little ones. Most of the family sang happy birthday but some were just too astonished.

Daffodil girls at Harewood House

susie — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:42:40 +0000

I’ve had a busy few days and have lots of good stuff to catch up with on the blog. But I had to start with yesterday’s shoot, which was the epitome of all my favourite things – gorgeous children, a perfect setting and parents prepared to go along with my strangest suggestions. Even better, mum Sarah is the editor of fantastic magazine Families Leeds, which features my work regularly on the cover, so it was hugely flattering and exciting that she chose me to do her own family portraits. Sarah was hankering after photos of Isobel and Eliza with crocuses but Harewood House was blooming only with daffodils so we made the most of them and enjoyed walking around the lake and exploring the woods. Sarah writes a blog and you can see what she said about our portrait session here. The bee story is true and was cute and very funny, though I did wonder if Sarah’s decision to then explain that bees actually sting would result in her screaming through fear instead. It didn’t and apparently Eliza’s still wanting one.

I hope she likes the images. She’s been so lovely and complimentary about my work I hope I can live up to expectations when it comes to her own family. Here goes with a few of my favourites.

I know the flare on the next one is a bit OTT but I love this image! There’s something about the graininess and the hippyish flags that remind me of my (not remotely hippyish) 1970s childhood and give it a nostalgic feel.

Mother’s Day at Salvo’s – portrait – photographer – Leeds – Yorkshire

susie — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:40:46 +0000

While other mothers enjoyed a day of pampering on Sunday, I nobly sacrificed my lazy day to help make sure some other mums were given something special. I spent the day at Salvo’s – winner of Gordon Ramsey’s The F Word best local independent Italian restaurant – not eating, although I did manage a few mouthfuls when my own family came for lunch, but photographing other families. When people had finished their meal they could come upstairs to the Enoteca where I’d set up a makeshift studio to take a photo of them. 27 families took advantage and will be receiving a lovely big free print in the post shortly. It was great fun and I met some lovely people. I’m hoping to see some of them again soon for full portrait sessions too.

The wonderful background, made up of individual iphone photos, deserves a special mention especially as it features in all these portraits. Local commercial photographer Helen Turton has an exhibition at Salvo’s of the 365 images she took with her iphone over the course of a year. Each one is a work-of-art in its own right and they are available to buy with the profits all going to charity.

Back to my humble portraits, here are a few of the great people and the mums, starting with the Dammones who are the owners of Salvos – Gip on the left and John on the right, with their own families.

Chilled little boy – portrait photography Yorkshire

susie — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:55:09 +0000

This is Max, one very cute little boy indeed. I went with his mum and dad to Horsforth Hall Park on a bitingly cold day last week for a bit of a play and to capture him at what is surely the pinnacle of his gorgeousness. It was snowing a bit and really not ideal for a portrait shoot but it’s possible to get lovely photographs in the most surprising circumstances and if my clients are game, so am I. This family was totally undeterred by the wintry weather to start with, so we set off full of enthusiasm and did manage to get some fab outdoor shots. Max, who is 16 months old, is not a fan of gloves or mittens so it wasn’t long before his poor little hands were red and painful so we headed back to their house to warm up and see what we could do in more familiar and cosy surroundings.

Here he is in the park:

Back at home, it was straight to quantum physics. That Einstein chap simply didn’t know what he was talking about. Now Max’s theory…

Back to the little people – portrait photography Yorkshire

susie — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:49:47 +0000

Yes I AM a portrait photographer! I seem to have been doing quite a bit of other stuff lately but natural light children’s portraits are where my heart lies – no offence lovely corporate clients

I had the pleasure of photographing Joe, who’s three and one-year-old Hannah a few days ago. It was bitterly cold and despite being wrapped up warm Hannah’s nose started to get a bit runny so after a brief play we headed back inside. Joe was happier outside so there’s more of him in the garden. I think Hannah is a home girl – can’t blame her. My favourite shots are the ones where they’re engrossed in what they’re doing. Hannah loves her dolls, Joe loves his trucks. Girls will be girls, boys will be boys, what can you do.

I’m very pleased that the evenings are starting to get a bit longer and there are little green shoots pushing up from the ground. Portrait photography bookings are getting booked up fast for February and March and I’m looking forward to getting outside more and having some fun.

Stockeld Park for a last burst of winter adventure

susie — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:25:26 +0000

Sunday was the last day (we thought then) of the holidays so we decided to head to the fabulous wonderland at Stockeld Park near Wetherby for our final festive flourish. We arrived just as the sun was setting and although it was bitterly cold, it was a great evening with snow to boot. I took my camera to get a few more wintry shots while I had the chance and had to resort to experimenting with the failing light as I didn’t want to use my flash and draw attention to myself. Little did I know that there was really no need to try so hard since the children have been off school today after just one day back and we are practically snowed in! I didn’t take my camera sledging today as it was still snowing so hard when we went all I thought I’d see was blizzard. But it looks like I may still have tomorrow…

Here are a couple of quick highlights from Stockeld Park, even including a landscape! Clearly the photography experimentation should stop before I go completely nuts. More light soon please!

Jasper was deemed too young to ski in the treacherous conditions so he and I had to walk round the enchanted forest while Karl and the girls made fools of themselves falling over every few seconds.

Off they go, not realising that the peril was themselves…
I was testing my boundaries big time with this one! I wanted some movement as Maisie was skating but it still had to clearly be her. A bit of panning round trying to follow her erratic course and I got her:

Susie Lawrence Photography is one year old. And it’s Christmas. And it’s snowing.

susie — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:42:11 +0000

It’s exactly a year since Susie Lawrence Photography was launched with a party. What a party that was and what a year it’s been. I have been so busy and so happy and even though I knew I wanted to do this, I had no idea how successful it would really be. I have been so lucky to have met the most fantastic friendly group of photographers who have helped and encouraged me every step of the way. And my clients have without exception, been great to work with and very appreciative of what I do, making my job easy and fun. When I say easy though, I don’t mean ‘easy’ easy! I mean easy in that I really want to do it well and have learnt so much and done everything in my power to make sure I do a good job. I have worked sooooo hard! So I give myself a small pat on the back (and a mincepie) I also know there’s still a lot to learn and new things to try and I can’t wait!

What better way to celebrate than to remember who I’m doing it all for in my heart of hearts. Obviously I love my job now and do it for selfish reasons, but these three and Karl, are what my real life is all about. Today we finally got a Christmas tree and Sasha, Maisie and Jasper decorated it as soon as they came home from school. It was quite magical with the sprinkling of snow outside. I’ve processed the shots to be a bit ‘vintage’ as that was how it felt in our living room – one of those moments that goes straight into memory as especially Christmassy.

A big thank you to everyone who has been involved with Susie Lawrence Photography as it’s grown up and flourished this year – clients, friends, family, fellow photographers and suppliers. It’s been amazing and I’m so excited about 2010. Have a wonderful Christmas everyone and I hope you have a great 2010 too. xxx

Taking a moment out to check if it’s still snowing outside. It’s not very in focus but I love this shot. (by the way, dear Santa, I would like a D700 for Christmas – it would improve my photography no end in low light like today – just a thought). You can see the snow on the hedge outside the window. So festive!