Portrait and Wedding Photographer - Susie Lawrence Photography » News

Pre-wedding at Castle Howard

susie — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:02:22 +0000

I first met Cat and Nick back in February when snow was on the ground and the temperature was in the minuses. It couldn’t have been more different than last week at Castle Howard. The weather was gorgeous and I’d forgotten how spectacular Castle Howard is – a photographer’s dream. But what really made the shoot was Cat and Nick themselves. They were so much fun. I didn’t have to ask them to do anything in these pictures, they were just spontaneously larking about and having a great time together, in between the odd pause to contemplate. Not surprisingly I am really looking forward to their wedding at The George Hotel, Piercebridge, near Darlington. If they’re even half as relaxed and happy as they were at their pre-wedding session it’s going to be an amazing wedding.

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.

Aimee and Ben wedding at Fountains Abbey and Ripon Racecourse

susie — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 17:12:14 +0000

Aimee and Ben had their wedding on the hottest, most summery day at Fountains Abbey, followed by the reception at Ripon Racecourse. It was a special day to photograph in many ways: I used to work with Aimee about five years ago in PR and had several conversations with her then about the chances of Ben ever asking her to marry him; the venue was fitting as Ben is a journalist who writes about horse racing, and it was a very emotional day, with lots of tears of joy (the groom in particular was a big softie!). The ceremony, the reception and the party afterwards had a really wonderful atmosphere. Thanks to Neil Matthews for being an excellent second shooter. I drove home through the Yorkshire countryside afterwards feeling like I’ve got the best job in the world. Great venues, fantastic people. Here are some of my favourite shots from the day. There are rather a lot – I did say it was special!

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

Portrait of two little boys

susie — Sat, 01 May 2010 14:08:19 +0000

Archie and Billy are brothers and their mum wanted a portrait of them while they are still babies. They are very close together in age and you can see how well they’re going to get along as they grow up as there’s already a clear bond. I had a lovely morning at home with them before Billy had his nap and they were great to photograph with lots of smiles and fun. Archie is very much into his ball sports and Billy is keen to join in so I’m sure it won’t be long before he’s just as mobile.

First it was rugby…

Then football…

And even a bit of golf…

It’s tough when you can’t join in properly. I had to include this one for the cuteness factor, but never has ‘joy to see’ been less appropriate. The dot of the J on his face can’t be very comfortable either! Poor Billy.

Luckily he quickly cheered up and we got a few shots of them together and individually.

Back indoors Thomas The Tank Engine was far more interesting than me and my camera.

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.

Aimee and Ben pre-wedding shoot at Roundhay Park

susie — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:32:41 +0000

This is going to be a really special wedding for me. Aimee and Ben are getting married in a few weeks times at Fountains Abbey, followed by a reception at Ripon Racecourse. I am really really excited about their wedding because Aimee and I used to work together in PR. She and Ben were together then and I remember her talking about one day getting married. At that time I was very much into my PR career and I never in a million years dreamt I would be their wedding photographer. I think if I’d known I would have been so thrilled both for them and for myself! I can’t wait for the wedding which is going to have lots of lovely touches, including ‘Yorkshire tapas’ for the meal, which I’m hoping I’ll get to sample as it sounds intriguing and fun.

For their pre-wedding shoot, we went to the Canal Gardens at Roundhay Park. We thought we might have to escape into Tropical World as the weather was blowing hot and cold but we were able to give the meerkats a miss as the rain held off long enough to get some relaxed shots. Aimee and Ben were both convinced that they weren’t going to enjoy the session and that they don’t look good on photographs. Wrong! They went away smiling and I think they’ll now be convinced how gorgeous they both are. Here are a few favourites.

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.

More corporate headshots! – portrait – photographer – Leeds – Yorkshire

susie — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:12:14 +0000

The people at Shepherd Engineering Services have commissioned me to take A LOT of portraits of themselves lately. I started with the marketing team and the senior management team and board of directors, then I did all the business managers and now I’ve had the pleasure of photographing the HR and training team. In between I’ve also done some PR shots at York’s new university campus and some completion photographs of a new health facility in Grimsby for them. The HR and training team took me over the road from their head office in York, where we’d just about exhausted all the possible backgrounds, to the lovely Hotel du Vin. There was a quiet courtyard just made for the job. Here are a few of the group shots and some individual ones for a flavour of how they were all processed.