Brian Harte the photographer

I’d like to share a few of the photos with you and talk about what went in to them and what they mean to me.

Last autumn I was asked to travel down to Buckingham for a family shoot. The family consisted of Mom, Dad and 3 girls (6 years to 14 years old). Mom had asked if it was possible to have photos at The National Trust Stowe Gardens. I had made a few phone calls, upped my insurance to £5million!!! (thats what they required) and arranged a permit for photography.

Here is a family shot taken about lunchtime (about a third of the way through the day). I arranged each member of the family in to a nice looking group but by this time I had got a feel for who each of them were and tried to help them express that in the photo. I don’t like my family group photos to look rigid but I also don’t want them to look a mess. You tell me but I think they have structure with room for everyone to move and express themselves within it.

Apparently some tourists were walking past while I was taking the photo and I shouted “Everybody. This is Lord and Lady Stowe!” which got them all to laugh and I captured a real warm moment.

Here are some photos of each of the girls.

When I am shooting photos I’ll only take photos where I deem the light to be good. There is not much point otherwise or you wont be able to see peoples eyes and expression. That usually means not in direct sunlight. There are always exceptions and this girls strong features and her fashion look made me feel that I could take this photo using the harshest of direct sunlight.

I don’t tend to do this with young children (although I also never say never) as the harsh light can be too dramatic on a child, I’ll save this for the teenagers and the funky adults.

Near the end of the day I took the family to an industrial estate where I wanted to have some photos that would be a departure from what we had done in the morning, I also had the feeling that the eldest girl wanted some fashion shots so I got my outdoor flash equipment and worked a few photographs there.

We ended up the day having a bit of fun back home when I persuaded the girls to sing and dance for me on the karaoke machine. It was a long day we had all enjoyed it so much it didn’t feel like it.

Here are a few more of my favorites from the day….

There are more but I’ll save them for another day. I hoped you liked them and feel free to leave a comment below.

I’d like to thank all of the family for such a fun day. I had a great time.

Well here are the portrait photographs as promised. I have given the girls aliases because of their age.

The weather forecast for the day was good…intermittent sun and dry all day. The previous day it had snowed quite a bit and the temperature had not risen above -1c (with wind chill about -4c). I got up early for a recce and decided the best place for some photos was on top of a hill with a large rocky outcrop. At this time of year there is not much foliage and the snow had covered a large part of the rocks making them fairly abstract.

The morning started well, and I managed to convince Nikki (the younger) to wear a sleeveless T-shirt (to be fair I had asked for a long sleeve but she didn’t have any in colour that would match the places). It was a great sign of trust from her and I knew the day was going to be great!

We began with the coldest location, on the top of the hill open to the full chill of the wind.

After about 20 minutes I could feel that the girls need to warm up so we jumped in the car, put the heaters on and drove to another location that had more shelter.

Here is a photo of Nikki with my fleece and leather jacket on while we are getting the shot ready. I just had to take it and I am glad I did as it is one of my favorite images so far this year.

We played around taking photos until our bellies started to tell us that we needed some warm soup and a crusty roll. So we headed back home. Just as we were finishing lunch it started to rain. It wasn’t forecast but it didn’t matter I had already scouted around the house and found a few places that provided perfect lighting and a simple background.

Becky had been a little reserved in the morning (probably because she was trying to forget being cold) but she really flowered later on and we got some great fashion style photos.

And thats where we stayed taking photos until the memory cards were full and the girls flagging.

Feel free to let me know your thoughts or which ones are your favorites by clicking add your comments below.