Children's party photography in the Soho House Hotel

 

"The best way to make children good is to make them happy"

Oscar Wilde

I was recently asked to photograph a childrens' birthday party at the Soho House Hotel in Chiswick.  I arrived at the beautiful venue only to be taken downstairs to a lovely room for a party, but a photographer's nightmare.  There was next to no light and 30 dashing, jumping, excitable children that were not going to slow down for anything.  I grabbed my flash and decided to shoot a slow shutter speed with my SB800 speedlight flash turned down by one stop and reflected off the ceiling and the walls.  So above is a selection of the results.  The full selection can be found here.

The party itself was so much fun, and at one point when entertainers from Sharky and George asked if anyone wanted a sweet, I found my own hand in the air desperate for a tiny bit of sugary goodness.  Unfortunately, I couldn't compete with all of those seven year olds!

As a children's photographer, my mantra has always been to shoot a lot.  Children move around very quickly and don't often give you time to think.  I had also been asked my client for some slightly more creative shots that she could think about using in her living room.  With that in mind I decided to shoot some on really slow shutter speeds to show the children moving around and to try to create the atmosphere in the party photographs.

Balham Street Festival Photographs

"Don't buy the house, buy the neighbourhood" 

Russian Proverb

I don't think the Balham festival is known yet on the international festival circuit, but it certainly exceeded my expectations and gave Balham that 'villagey' feel that people often say describes it.  All the usual faces were there, including Gemma from White Iris Flowers, Dani from Corte Dei Signori, Ron from Robbies Photographic, and hundreds of others that had come to see the various entertainers. 

As I wasn't there as an official event photographer, I was able to potter around and take a few pictures of the comings and goings of the various people.  It was so lovely to have such a neighbourly feel to Balham and to see people mingling, meeting new people, laughing, giggling and sharing such a lovely day.

I had only recently been on the street photography course with Digital Photography magazine, so I was trying to put my new skills into practice to photograph the various people and expressions.  You can see the full selection of pictures here.

Family portrait photography at the "Lavender Fields"

In true man there is a child concealed - who wants to play! 

Friedrich Nietzche

 Having photographed the Corte Dei Signori at work (see previous blog here), Dani asked me to have a picnic with his family in the Lavender fields and then to take some family photographs.  Janet, Dani's wife has a great love of lavender fields and you can certainly see why.  The fields are incredibly beautiful, with endless rows of thick, bushy lavender.  I was expecting the smell to be slightly overpowering, but it was so gentle it provided for the perfect setting.  

As a London family photographer, I have worked in a variety of different places, but it isn't often that I see such a beautiful location so close to the center of town.  We had a picnic lunch of cheese and bread fresh from Italy that week.  

After lunch, I photographed the family in a variety of poses using a reportage photography style as well as a slightly more formal and posed style.  You can see the full range of shots here.  As a family portrait photographer, I find the best shots come from taking a step back and just allowing the family to play together.  My favourite shots are the more relaxed and natural ones where it seems that they are sharing a hilarious moment.