The Ranger Family - Portrait Session at Launceston’s City Park

The City Park is one of those spots that holds fond memories for anyone who grew up in or around Launceston. From Carols by Candlelight to Festivale the City Park is the heart of our little city.

So when I decided to start photographing families as part of my location guide I knew I couldn’t pass it up, and thankfully Amber and Coire were super excited to have their family photographed there!

As a general rule I like to start at the band rotunda, it’s an easy place to meet and everyone knows where it is! it’s also a great -contained- space for the kids to run a little bit while they’re still excited about being at the park. It always has really beautiful soft light there and the steps make it easy to layer family members

The Rangers were one of those families we photographers dream about. Amber told me that she had been following me on social media for a little while and had jumped at the opportunity for a shoot with me, that she didn’t want anyone else to photograph her family. She had taken in all the things a preach about on the daily about exisiting in photos with her children, and how Samuel and Amelia won’t be looking at these photographs in the future nitpicking what she looked like, only seeing the love she and Coire have for each of them.

Amber took in all my suggestions to help make the shoot run smoothly and even consulted me when it came to their outfits to make sure they would all look coordinated on camera, while still having their individual personalities! Which really just makes my job easy!

I won’t lie, photographing kids of ANY age can be tough work, especially when we’re at the park with the monkey’s and the playground and the train and the ducks and we’re not allowed to go do any of it until afterwards! Amelia and Samuel were no different and definitely made me work for my images! This first image of Amelia is probably one of my favourites from the shoot, because it really shows the stone cold “what are you even doing here” Sass I got from her at the start of the shoot (Amber assured me that I’m not the only one who gets the sass!). I spent a lot of time with her, just chatting (and making fart noises) before she warmed up to me and I was able to capture the second image.

I always try to start my photoshoots off with photographing any children individually exactly for this reason. Often it’s the first time they’ve met me, and I spend half the time with them hiding behind a camera - How Scary!! So it takes a little bit of time for them to warm up to me and for me to get to know them and find out the things we can chat about. Sometimes it takes 2 minutes, sometimes it takes 20, but when we get there the results are ALWAYS worth it.

I once had a shoot with a 3 year old who hid from me for the entire shoot! I got all the images we needed in literally the last 10 minutes and when Mum came in for the viewing a week later she told me the 3 year old hadn’t stopped talking about me and how we were best friends now.

Sometimes - Especially with younger kids or pets - the whole shoot will feel like a complete shitshow. But I promise I’m not leaving until I have beautiful photographs of your family, and I can also promise that from my side of the camera, it’s generally not as messy as you think is it! 1/125th of a second goes by pretty quickly, and that’s all I need, so you’ll be forgiven if you miss the fraction of a second where things look calm and put together 😂

Amber and Coire ended up with a portfolio box of matted prints, which is perfect for rentals and those who move semi regularly and don’t know what their wall space is going to look like in the future!

If you want to know more about the portrait process or want to book a consult to have a chat about having your own family portraits taken you can do so below