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.