Family Portraits

I have just finished a portrait shoot with a gorgeous young family in central London to celebrate their son and my namesake Sean's first birthday.

Read on for some examples of the beautiful images we made and a description of the shoot.



I am a bit of a meticulous planner and for certain types of photography - say sports or fashion - and I would normally arrive with a clear idea of different locations we might use, the lighting setups required for each setting, and often a very specific set of shots that I want to capture. But with family portraits, particularly families with toddlers, I've found it is often best to throw the script out of the window and try to fit in around the family's normal routine. This makes for a much more natural and organic set of pictures and, I think, a much more pleasant and relaxing experience for the family. This is just what we did here! After Sean's bath (baby Sean's, that is!) and some lunch, we went to Hyde park for a walk and we were able to take a couple of shots at the spot where the couple had some of their wedding portraits made.

One set of shots that were preplanned were the images of Sean in a sea of bubbles. I don't know who had more fun, the one year old who was enraptured by the strange colourful spheres floating in the air or mum with her 'leedle friend', a battery powered Buzz Lightyear bubble gun!

The overcast sky and the (very) mobile toddler lent themselves to available light photography and I shot mostly with the Nikkor 80-200 f/2.8 lens at around f/4. No flash. No softboxes. No reflectors. Not exactly an approach that I am used to, but one that I am gaining a greater and greater appreciation for especially when the situation calls for it. I was planning to do a higher proportion of black and white images but in the end we opted mainly for colour, with the images processed to produce a muted, slightly warm colour palette.

I had such fun being a part of the family's life for an afternoon and my only regret is that they are moving to India in the summer and I won't be there to photograph Sean's 2nd birthday.

Thanks for looking!

images © Sean Afnan 2012 all rights reserved