Casual Family Photos – Scott & Ruth

Scott and Ruth recently welcomed their third child into this world and decided to have some casual family photos done to celebrate. Many of our newborn shoots tend to be in the studio. There we can control many aspects of the environment. But getting outdoors during a glorious sunny afternoon, that’s hard to beat. Scott and Ruth love the area around Carine Open Space, so naturally, that’s where we went.

Coordinating a group of five, including three children under three years of age, is often a bit of a challenge. So to keep things moving and interesting for everyone we changed things up on a regular basis. You’ll see this in the images below. It’s a lot to ask of a young child to sit still and be attentive for long periods, so we like to break it up by getting them moving around a bit.

We also love to take time during newborn shoots to let parents connect with the new baby, one on one, while the other parent spends some time with siblings, (or has some time to themselves if this is their first child). We often find that parents relish the time that we give them to simply be present with their new baby, making it one of the most enjoyable aspects of the session. Casual family photos focus on more than traditional group shots. Instead they take the time to connect with individuals and various groupings / units within the larger family group.

As children get older their personalities begin to shine. It’s important to allow them to be an individual and for that to be seen in photos. We love taking the time to bring out that personality during our casual family photos. We also enjoy documenting children as they explore the environment around the shoot location. This can present some wonderful interactions between parents and children, and siblings.

With very young children, i.e. not yet mobile, and with larger (often inter-generational) groups, we do find slightly more formal groups to be easier to manage. That said, we still aim for fairly casual results and as little direction / posing as possible. If this sounds like your cup of tea, get in touch. In the meantime, here is a small selection of the images we delivered to Scott and Ruth.