family

Christmas in France

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I spent Christmas this year with my wife’s family in the south of France. My mother-in-law, who is 93, had asked me some time ago to create an album of photographs of the family for her, so I documented the week we spent together quite extensively. Now that the album is edited, printed and delivered, I thought I’d share some of the photographs here as well.

All the images were shot in black and white with a Leica Q2 Monochrom.

I hope you had a wonderful end-of-year break, too.

Child photography on location

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I really enjoy photographing children. They are generally more spontaneous and less self-conscious than adults, displaying their thoughts and feelings plainly in their faces and their gestures. It’s a special privilege to photograph the same child at different stages of their development.

I recently met up with this little boy and his mother for our third session together. The first shoot was in their home, the second in the studio, and this time we met in a local park. It was a beautiful day, and we chatted and strolled and photographed for just over an hour. The park has a vegetable garden, farm animals, a fishing lake, and orchards carpeted with wild flowers, so there was plenty to distract and entertain my subject.

If you are thinking of booking a professional shoot for yourself and your children, do consider the option of doing this ‘on location’. I can recommend beautiful places in Brussels suitable for children of different ages, not far from where you live.

Photographing families – beyond the studio portrait

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Last weekend I photographed a young family in their home just outside Brussels. It was the second time in a week that a client had told me: "We want something less formal, more spontaneous."

I had a great time, chatting with the parents, sitting on the floor with the children (aged three and one), and getting really close as they became absorbed in a story or a game. I started shooting the moment I arrived, and in the two hours I was there I don't think I even asked for a head to be turned more than two or three times.

A tripod or a flash would have made it much harder to get the children – and perhaps the parents, too – to relax and be themselves. So I was pleased that there was midday light pouring in through a big picture window. I shot fairly wide open in order to separate my subjects from the background clutter of furniture and toys. But despite that, I had to compromise with shutter speed and ISO, except for the 15 minutes when we went out into the garden.

Technically, the resulting images are not as perfect as those that a studio photographer would have produced. But nor are they stiff or stilted. They capture the personalities of four members of a family on a particular day in the winter of 2017, enjoying one another's company in their own environment. That is, after all, what my clients wanted. And they are super happy with the results.

I'm not posting any images of the children here, because the parents specifically asked me not to publish these online.