Maddie and Owen are gorgeous! They’re also really great fun so I was chuffed to bits when Zoe and Steve called and asked if I could take some photographs for the walls of their new house.

Sometimes I’ll use studio lights for these kinds of photographs but not this time. Each of these was shot using the natural light coming in the window of the spare bedroom at their house. This meant that Maddie and Owen were completely relaxed in their own surroundings so it was easy for them both to appear perfectly natural.

It was also funny to get some great expressions from Maddie in the last two photographs. She does her ‘cheeky little monkey’ look very well. I think she gets it from her mother… :-)

Last Friday I spent a few hours in London with a good friend, Alanna (see bottom photograph), who needed some extra training in how to use her camera better. Alanna is excellent at ‘seeing’ in her head the photograph she’s trying to capture but just needed a little help understanding how her camera can be used to achieve some of these images. I have every confidence she’ll go far in the world of photography!

Meanwhile, Sarah was our willing model for the day and she did very well at a) modelling, b) staying relaxed, and c) being patient with Alanna and I all day!!

The photographs below are some of the ones we captured from the day. We started in Westbourne Park near Paddington (thanks to Kim from IMMI for this recommendation) before moving on to Camdem Lock (the brick wall and the b&w bridge shots below), Trafalgar Square (the obligatory telephone box) and then over Westminster Bridge.

We even bumped into the police (last photograph – eek!) but thankfully they were on our side!

I hope you like the images below – we had a fun time!

A family portrait shoot in the sunny Hampshire village of Monk Sherborne (near Basingstoke) was perhaps the best way to spend an afternoon last weekend. And the weather was perfect for the occasion. In fact, it was so good that we were all in need of ice-cold drinks by the time we returned!

We decided that for the family photography session we should all walk to the local park and let the children be children. No harsh studio lights, no fake smiles, just natural beauty at its best.

Evie is just at that age when she wants to look good in front of the camera (but she’s not at the age when they run away from it!) and Max is at the wonderfully inquisitive stage of his life when everything is there to be poked, prodded or stared at. Cameras included.

Below is a small sample from the afternoon. Hope you like them!

I’m really excited to share with you two new videos I’ve had produced for Bonjour Photography!  Both videos were produced by Paul Wilkinson in Queensland, Australia, and they reflect the shooting style of Bonjour perfectly.

The first video focuses on weddings and shows some examples of recent work.  The weddings in this video include venues such as the Forbury Hotel in Reading, the Elvetham Hotel in Hartley Wintney, and the Lythe Hill Hotel in Haslemere.

The second video is all about portraits and shows a variety of children in both studio and natural environments. All my portraiture is ‘on location’ these days and none is in the studio.  I find this brings a much more natural result as, let’s face it, children don’t usually choose to play in a studio with big lights flashing every few seconds!

Paul Wilkinson was amazingly patient with me when he produced these and we went through several versions together. Him being on the other side of the world made no difference to the levels of customer service I enjoyed, mainly because he gets up early and works late into the night to accomodate people like me!

Anyway, take a look at the videos and see what you think!  Just click here to visit the Bonjour Photography main website, and then select the link called ‘promo videos’ along the top bar.

Would be great to know what you think too!

“After the cake has been eaten and the flowers are gone your photographs will live forever”