When to incorporate a play date, with a photoshoot!

When your clients are your friends, and your kids all have a blast playing together, a photo shoot / playdate is the most obvious way to make our slow emergence from our last 3 months of isolation.

I always love photographing these kids, they are vibrant and full of energy and fun. Seeing how the older ones interact with little Oakah is the cutest thing and it feels very special to photograph their milestones.

My little girl is right in between Finnik and Opi, they have so much fun running around, they even managed to seek out Pop Pop and coerce him into a trailer ride in the paddock. They are all little farm kids at heart. Rue and Ruairi made the cutest little connection and were thick as thieves by the end of the afternoon.

There are some small downsides to having my own kids present at a photoshoot, mainly keeping them out of the frame! It took an extra bit of time in photoshop to clone them out of a few of the images. Another few years though and they will be very handy assistants to have around.

The relaxed atmosphere and the fun they all had running free made the whole afternoon so much fun and Leah’s kids were happy and engaged when they were in front of the camera. Now that we can have bigger groups together again, this would be the perfect afternoon for your playgroup or your coffee group. A fun afternoon with the kids and beautiful portraits of them all together.

Leah said something when we were sitting having a coffee and the kids were playing afterwards, which really struck a chord. She said, knowing she can have these images of the kids when we do our photo sessions, takes so much pressure off that constant need to photograph the kids herself which so many of us have. The time spent with her children, she can relax and be the moment rather than feeling the constant need to grab her phone out to photograph all the little details as her kids grow.

I’m not entirely sure if I have just the usual Mum guilt around this or is it an amplified version of photog-mum guilt, but I feel this very strongly. I find it so hard to sit back and enjoy or join in on their games as I usually end up running to grab my camera or pull out my phone the moment something fun starts to happen.

I am over the moon that I do get to capture my kids childhood, it’s the reason I started the photography path after all. But it is a good reminder, for me to put my camera down every now and again with my own family but also about how important this job I do is, for the families that I look after.

Having portraits of your kids that capture their little personalities as they grow and change and their relationships with each other, is the most special gift you can give yourself and that legacy of their childhood.

Here is a little less glamorous behind the scenes look, chalk on the walls and toys thrown around, the two girls camped out in the boot of the car for a while!