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!
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.
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.
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.
by susie
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