Outdoor Family Photos with 3-month-old Lewis

Chloe, Andrew, Jasmine (3) and Aaron (2) have just welcomed little Lewis into the family. Their wonderful cousin, Caroline – a friend of mine – decided to buy them a shoot with me as a gift for Chloe’s birthday.

I could see Chloe’s incredible passion for her family as she told me about their family and the children’s nicknames: Lewis Lion, Aaron Baby Bear and Jasmine Gorgeous Girl 🙂

“It’s their unconditional love,” she told me, “Children love you absolutely and unconditionally no matter what. They have so much energy and I love watching them learn and develop into little people.”

With three children to keep them busy, Chloe describes their family as ‘wild’: “We have our two toddlers running around like crazy all the time, we’re unorganised and we’re always late to things!” she says.

What Chloe wanted most of all from our family photoshoot was a photo with everyone smiling.

“We have so many pictures but none where everyone is smiling and looking towards the camera,” Chloe told me.

As this would be an outdoor shoot, we booked in a Plan A and Plan B date in case of wet weather. Happily, as the Plan A date drew nearer, the forecast improved until there was just a 1% chance of rain forecast for the time of our shoot.

I contacted the location to arrange shoot permissions, helped Chloe select outfits for the family and planned my route for the day.

We met up, and Chloe and Andrew gently roused their three children from their car-induced slumber. The sun was shining as we picked our way through the trees to a spot I had scouted earlier in the day.

Just as we got started, the sun disappeared behind clouds and thick drops of rain started to fall, just here and there at first but quickly increasing to a downpour. We took cover under a tree and spent the time building a den and playing hide-and-seek as we waited for the weather to pass overhead.

To their credit, Chloe and Andrew didn’t let the weather faze them at all, which meant the kids saw it as an adventure instead. We continued playing games, venturing out from under the tree-line as the skies cleared and the sun shone again for a sweet final shot of the children together:

After our shoot, Chloe said:

“We had a family photo shoot with Sarah. From the initial planning to the final pictures, Sarah was excellent. We were really keen to get a picture of the whole family all looking and smiling. With three children aged newborn to 3 years who initially were not interested in having their pictures taken and then it started raining (we had a shoot outside), we didn’t expect to achieve this. Despite this, Sarah was very patient, friendly and professional. She also had a few games and tricks to entertain and engage the children. After, Sarah emailed a slideshow of the final pictures with a beautiful soundtrack. We were thoroughly delighted and a little emotional with the results. We highly recommend Sarah; thank you Sarah.”

Chloe, Family photography client from Hampshire

Names have been changed on request.

If you’re interested in family photography in and around Bicester, Oxfordshire, please get in contact:

Sarah Plater LMPA is an award-winning qualified, certified professional newborn and family portrait photographer based in Bicester, Oxfordshire. She is the Master Photographers Association Newborn Photographer of the Year 2019 for the Central Region (covering Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire).