Spring Family Photoshoot

I don’t share every photo shoot I do here, but sometimes I do one where everything just seems right and it sums up exactly why I love taking photos for people. This is one of those. This family had chatted to me months ago about having a family photoshoot in the bluebells. I had kept a close eye on when they would start blooming and as soon as they did I headed over with Max to check out the location we had chosen… and oh was I blown away with what I found! I’ve seen many bluebell woods before but I think this was possibly the best. Acres and acres of woodland, completely carpeted with bluebells and patches of white woodland anemones. There were little paths winding through the trees, and every so often rope swings and log dens amongst the trees and flowers. The whole place was the perfect playground for children and fairies alike 🙂

We watched the forecast for a week and the rain just kept on coming down.. I was really starting to panic that we were going to miss this short window of opportunity. However our perseverance paid off and one Thursday evening we were treated to the most beautiful, warm and balmy Spring evening. For outdoor photoshoots it really is well worth clearing the diary on a few possible dates. I am always willing to change plans at short notice when possible, as getting the best shots possible is the most important thing to me!

The bluebells really come to life in the sunshine, lifting the colour and breathing energy into the scene. When the sun is high in the sky the light is still surprisingly bright under the trees and the contrasts are too strong for my liking. The warm, glowing light we found that evening was just perfect. I positioned the family in patches of light amongst the flowers* and backlit them with evening sunshine, and then stood back and just snapped away.

I love to capture the candid moments the best, the small interactions between family members. This sweet family were really easy to photograph, and even though their son Ben was less comfortable in front of the camera than his little sister Sadie-Rose, he was happy to accompany them and chat with his sister and his mum.

This was one of those photoshoots that makes me very happy to be a photographer and help a family capture some memories. It really was a magical evening in the woods.

I shot these images with my Nikon D610 and Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 lens. The location was Everdon Stubbs which is looked after by the Woodland Trust. *It hopefully goes without saying that our bluebells are very precious and care must always be taken not to squash them and to look after our woodlands.