Last weekend we shot our final wedding before Christmas. This meant that I had a rare Saturday free to catch up with my nieces. I don’t get to see them as often as i’d like. We are usually shooting at weekends and during the week they’re obviously at school so there’s not much opportunity for family time. Yesterday turned out to be the perfect day to go exploring though- albeit a little cold. Sam couldn’t join us unfortunately as theres a mound of wedding editing still to do, so we left him to it and set off on an adventure of our own. We explored the grounds of the Hylands Estate. Sam couldn’t join us unfortunately as theres a mound of wedding editing still to do, so we left him to it.
Learning the basics of taking a photograph
We chose this location as the girls are taking quite an interest in what I do as they are getting older. We’ve photographed weddings at Hylands House before and it’s also quite a popular location for engagement shoots, so we had a little look around. I also brought my camera along so they could have a tinker. A busman’s holiday for me perhaps, but they loved it! They loved learning how to back button focus and actually take a picture. We did end up accidentally shooting at f10 sometimes, but who cares. All part of the learning curve.
Photography assistants in the making
What surprised me most is how many ideas for poses and places to take photos they had. It always amazes me what kids pick up and take in. They’d remembered quite a lot from a studio photoshoot they’d done when they were little, so they delighted in showing me some of their favourite cheesy poses! By the end of our expedition they had a good grasp of what nice light is and what looks good on camera.
Everything in this post was one of their ideas for pose and location. I think I may have two assistants in the making!
A little reminder
Yesterday was a lovely reminder to take more personal photographs and to try and dedicate more time for “family time”. To take off the photographer hat sometimes and just have fun. Forget perfect exposures and don’t worry about spending an eternity on the editing afterwards. Better to have a handful of photos to cherish with a less than perfect white balance than to have a hundred perfect photos sitting untouched on an external hard drive.
The real fun was in the experience. I had a lovely day watching the girls enjoy themselves and learning something new. And you know what? They wont even mind about my less than perfect editing, just so I had something to show them when they woke up this morning. There’s plenty of time for precision when shooting and editing weddings and that’s something i’m going to try and remember going forward.
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