The Hawes Family Portraits at Hollybank Forest Reserve

22 June

I have a few families who I photograph every single year without fail, and since Jude and Leo were born at the end of 2019 the Hawes family have become one of those families. Of course having been best friends with Tegan for 2/3rds of our lives and being godmother to the twins definitely helps with that 😉. So on a beautiful autumn day we ventured out to Hollybank Forrest for their annual family portraits.

Tegan did an amazing job of co-ordinating the whole family’s outfits. One thing I normally tell Mum’s when planning what to wear (because lets be real, it’s usually Mum getting everyone dressed am i right?) is to plan your own outfit first because Mum’s are most likely to leave themselves until last and then hate everything they have to wear! So plan Mum’s outfit first and then co-ordinate the rest of the family around Mum’s outfit. Try to pick a couple of complimentary colours and coordinate them into each person’s outfits.

We started this shoot at about 1pm, because that’s when the boys are the happiest after their nap. I like to schedule my shoots around nap schedules and when the little ones are the happiest. I know a lot of photographers like to schedule their shoots during the golden hour right before sunset (trust me I love it too!) but I will take happy kids at midday over cranky babies with golden light any day!

Tegan and Daniel’s life is anything but calm with these two and I always try to capture a bit of “real life” in my family portraits. I often tell my clients that I don’t like to pose people for their portraits, but that’s not exactly true. My method of posing is more “prompting” you to do things with your family, which will naturally put you into good posing, because lets be honest, sometimes our completely natural candid poses are not the most photogenic (hello 700 chins), these prompts are designed to make you look your best as well as natural and relaxed.