INSPIRED BY LIGHT

With three little crazies, it's been a while since I was able to actually leave the house easily on my own, especially during the hectic tea time, bath and bed gauntlet we run every day. However, luckily Anja decided to finally accept Daddy putting her to bed, just in time for me to do this wonderful golden hour shoot for a fellow Berlin photographer. Simona had her heart set on sunset in a meadow, and luckily for us, we got just the right day with beautiful evening light and Britzer Garden did not disappoint for our gorgeous location. 

We had talked about this shoot for a while, and as a fellow photographer, I knew I had to make it super special for her and her family. But it also really reinforced for me how important a couple of key things are when planning a session and making sure that I get the best result possible for my client. 

SCOUTING OUT THE LOCATION

As soon as Simona told me that she had a vision of a summer meadow where the kids could run, ideally in the south of Berlin, I was constantly on the lookout whenever I travelled around the city. I saw so many beautiful verges, filled with wild flowers along the roads around Teltow and Lichterfelde, but clearly these had to be ruled out for reasons of child preservation! Most of the outlying meadows seemed to just be grass, so I decided to go and check out how the meadows in Britzer Garden were doing.

Despite my fractured ankle (that's another story), I had a wonderful morning (slowly) strolling around the gardens, looking at all the different areas and settings, thinking about where the evening sun would be coming from and what would give me a lovely background for this beautiful family! Know what time of day we would be shooting, the mood we wanted to create and what two small children might need in terms of freedom shaped the session entirely. Sending photos back and forward to Simona, and with her visiting later that day too we were really able to nail a common vision for what we both wanted to achieve from the session.,

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EMOTIONAL CONNECTION

This was a family maternity session, so I knew I wanted it all to be about emotional connections and with two little crazies in tow, it needed to be about fun as much as capturing some beautiful shots. Luckily, this is right up my street and I just love a session that is just about capturing the love and feelings of a family. In fact, one of my favourite phrases is 'I don't want you to look at me, just look at each other and feel the love'. For this shoot, I really wanted to create something emotive and special, not bound by the the traditional posing and trying to get the kids to look at the camera and smile. I love my studio work, which by it's nature tends to be more posed, but I really loved getting back to my candid roots, and just a capturing a gorgeous family playing, connecting and just being! I really hope you love the results!

Much love

Gemma xx