Mini-Sessions are GO!

I do love weddings.  It's a genuine rush, a thrill, waiting to go into action on the morning of a wedding.  I've been at it for nigh on 10 years and the feeling has never faded.  It's like walking into the first day at a new job, or standing over your mountain bike or skis at the top of an exposed black run.  The adrenaline kicks in and only the fact that you've done this hundreds of times before calms the nerves and stops shaky hands!

And this is also why I really, really enjoy making family portraits - the experience is almost the polar opposite of shooting a wedding.  I can turn up and spend time with a happy family with absolutely no pressure.  It's still exhilarating but in a very fun way.  Whilst great wedding photos are sometimes forged in the heat of the moment, forced to the surface like furious spouts of beautiful lava ( I know, sorry), portrait sessions allow a completely different way of working - more meandering river than pyroclastic flow .  This is obviously a completely over the top way to describe the different working methods but it's true in my mind :-)

Anyway, the more I move into family and childrens' portraiture, the more I find my little niche.  A good friend of mine and all round brilliant photographer, Mandy Charlton, recently looked over some of my work and declared, "You photograph children the same way you photograph dogs!" (She meant it in a good way - I also have a specialist dog photography business).  And she was quite right - I do!  Children love to run around, jump off stuff and generally let off steam.  So whilst I always get some heartfelt and reasonably static portraits, I also get plenty of photos of children being, well, children - being themselves.

To keep the outdoor family portraits ticking over, I recently started offering mini-sessions - these are basically 20 minute portrait sittings (runnings and jumpings really!) in the great outdoors.  I'm able to offer them at half my usual price because everyone comes to me, rather than me rushing all over the north east with bags full of photography gear.  Here's a link to my north east outdoor portrait info page.  It has all the dates of the upcoming mini-session days.  Big people are positively encouraged to step up for a few photos too - for me, family photographs in beautiful locations are always better than very staged studio shots.  Just far more relaxed and happy :-)

Do feel free to get in touch through my website or just drop me an email at info@emersonphotography.co.uk or just call me on 07866127732.

Emerson Photography reviews

Christmassy Portraits with Amelie

North East Wedding and Portrait Photography

Portrait sessions with small children are so much fun - even for a grizzled old veteran like me!  I've shot so many in and around the North East over the years - my work has taken me all over Sunderland, Newcastle and Durham.  Kids are just lovely to work with - totally unpredictable.  It's why I almost always try to put aside at least an hour - a child can be screaming for Britain one minute, and taking a huge interest in a soapy bubble the next, all smiles and rosy cheeks!

So yesterday's was one of my favourite portrait shoots of the year.  Amelie was truly a joy to photograph - a couple of tantrums, but nothing serious and she more than made up for it by posing like a pro!

The photo above wasn't quite what we were looking for - the hope was that Amelie would wear her angel-wings and angelically sniff the roses - as you can see, she preferred to throw the roses on the ground - still works very well I think, and doesn't look at all posed (due to the fact that children won't pose unless they choose to!).  She did hold it out for me to look at though.....

We had an interesting time with a santa stocking full of shiny, red Christmas tree baubles.   Amelie was so taken with them that at least one bauble had to be present in every shot thereafter.  Photoshop's clone tool is our friend when it comes to shiny, red baubles.

Yay!  Christmassy stuff!!

The next few shots were an absolute hoot - Amelie's mum and dad brought out this fantastic little play tent which normally hangs over her bed - perhaps seeing it in an unexpected place caught her interest.  She certainly seemed happy to play with the netting for a good few shots.

 So, thankyou Amelie (and mum and dad!) for making my job an easy and pleasant one.