Gemma, Adam & Abbi
I really enjoy shoots that are surprise presents for relatives. I can’t pin it down to a specific reason, maybe it’s the feeling of excitement and suspense or maybe I just like a good surprise but this shoot with three lovely kids was a surprise for Gran.
The shoot itself took place in sunny Wishaw, and for once it actually was quite sunny so for the two older children, Gemma and Adam, we planned to get some outside shots. We started with little baby Abbi inside, just letting her play around with toys in the comfort of her living room. Toys are a great distraction for small children but if possible I only use them as a distraction, and crop tightly by using the zoom lens and hanging back so the child does not really notice me. The reason for this is that in my opinion toys can date a picture, and they can also be a distraction to the viewer. Having said all that, I then got some shots of Abbi playing upstairs with a glitterball, now if that isn’t distracting I don’t know what is 
I then took some natural light shots of Gemma and Adam upstairs before we headed outside to grab some shots as the weather was playing ball. The children were absolutely brilliant even though it was quite cold. You would be surprised at the amount of hidey holes and nooks and crannies that provide great locations for pictures and there were plenty in the garden.
Thanks very much to Gillian and Pamela for the fantastic hospitality 
Here are a few of my favourites from the shoot.
Adam and Lauren
It’s a small world, it really is. For a good few years now I’ve walked past little Adam and Lauren’s house and thought it would be a great location to take photographs in, specifically the front porch which has amazingly colourful windows. I know that’s a pretty sad thing to admit but there you go I’ve not done many shoots in my hometown of Strathaven up until now so when Catherine got in touch to ask for photos taken of her family the first thing I did was go right onto Google maps to scout the location. And there it was, the house with the colourful front porch! The pressure was on
It was a bitterly cold day so we decided on staying indoors for most of the shots. Adam and Lauren were totally relaxed in front of the camera and Adam even laughed at my lame attempts at humour which makes him a good guy in my books.
Many thanks goes to Catherine and Angus and the grandparents who popped in as well. Nothing was too much trouble and the tea was excellent thank you
As for the porch, well I got my one shot in. Adam’s expression in the shot is probably down to a couple of things. 1) The temperature, it wasn’t warm 2) The position I was in, lying on my back, legs in the air holding the camera in one hand and the flash in the other, all the time checking if the flash outside the porch was firing as well. I was like an upturned crab.
There were a couple of Adam smiling but this was my favourite, what an expression
Here are a few of my favourite shots from the day, starting with the crab shot
