Surrey Family Photography // A Day In The Life of The Spary Family
I love it when I get a booking for Surrey family photography. The mixture of photographing weddings versus family shoots is more one sided in the summer peak of ‘wedding season’. So when Jennie emailed me I was so excited. It is always a very special feeling when a family want you to photograph their family. It is even more special when you get to revisit a family that you ave photographed before! I first photographed Jennie and her family when they entered a competition to win A Day In The Life shoot with me. You can see the family shoot here on a previous blog post. On that day we spent the morning at their house and chatted about their life as new parents.
Fast forward and Jennie asked me to photograph their family again. Much like before they were happy to spend time at home and just document their time together now that their daughter was growing up. However this time the shoot would be more focussed around them as a family – before a new little someone made their way into the world. Jennie was expecting her second child and was conscious that she wanted to appreciate the time that her little family had together before the exciting new arrival of Arabelle’s sibling.
With the new experiences that life with two children brings I think that it was a wonderful idea to document and remember life before new babies are born. Much like couples taking a ‘baby-moon’ before their expected due date to appreciate time together, having a little family shoot before a second child is born is a celebration of your unit, of your tribe. To remember what it was like before you had to juggle a million and one things for two hungry humans instead of one for example!
When I revisited the Spary household much was the same, apart from a few more toddler toys, some feng shui furniture moves and a new bathroom upstairs! It was like I had never been away really. I arrived on a lovely sunny afternoon. We chatted over a cup of tea and talked about how life was whilst we waited for Arabelle to wake up from her nap. When we heard the tell tale signs on the baby monitor I followed Edward up to see Arabelle. Those big beautiful eyes were a little sleepy and it only took a few moments for her to be the smiley baby I had photographed a few years before.
Arabelle was sure to show me her favourite toys and I watched as they had a little bit of lunch. Although when you look through the images you would think that we had styled her in those cute bunny ears, but no! It was all Arabelle’s doing! She adorably kept pointing to the top of her head and saying “bunny” with this cheeky grin. That kind of inside smile where a toddler is just learning how to talk.
When ever I photograph families I always fit in a portrait of everyone. These are important to remember in amongst the candid and documentary style images. With children I understand that this is not always a scheduled occurrence so I choose the most opportune moment when parents are having a cuddle rather than trying to force and stage it. I hope that this is conveyed in these images and that you enjoy looking through them. I had such a blast revisiting Jennie and her family and it still makes me smile looking back at Arabelle in those gorgeous bunny ears!
If you are interested in Surrey family photography then please do email me at hello@jessicagracephotography.co.uk
Alternatively if you would like to see more examples of my Surrey family photography shoots why not take a look at another Day In The Life session that I photographed in Woking where we hung out in the garden and then went on a family bike ride or perhaps my Brighton Family Session.