Hello everyone.
Winter is just around the corner, and I’m wrapping up all my outdoor family photo sessions. It has been a tremendous summer season with lots of work done on beaches, parks and client homes.
This summer, I did a lot of family photography in West Lothian. Around Linlithgo town, Beecraigs Park, which is one of my family favourite wild outdoors locations. Today’s blog story comes from Blackness beach. It is a small village on the west Lothian coast with some beautiful spots for photography.
I usually operate the most in Edinburgh but do travel out to various locations in west and east Lothians. I love when families share with me their favourite spots and very often, I do revisit them with my own family.
The Cotton family reached out to me and asked if I could do some family portraits for them. After a phone call, I discovered that they have three kids who love going to their local Blackness beach and generally spend time outdoors. The eldest has started her drama studies and wanted a few beautiful headshots too.
As a family photographer, I always try to discover what is important to them and why they are doing this. I visited the family in West Lothian beforehand, and we had a good talk about their goals. They wanted portraits for their walls.
The family wanted this session to be natural and fun to show kids characters and family connection between them.
After a walk around local locations, I found a little creek, beautiful hidden away spots for family photos and some long grass places for individual portraits. These all are perfect for keeping kids occupied and engaged.
I wanted this session to be filled with natural reactions. The family wanted to involve running with the kite, finding beasties on the beach, and I proposed the idea of little paper boats to put them in the creek. Kids loved this, and everyone had an excellent time.
At the time, I had a friend staying with me. He is a fantastic film creator, and I asked him to come with me to create for me a short film showing how I work with families. The cotton family also didn’t mind when I asked a few questions to them after the session.
Enjoy this West Lothian family photography gallery.
Parents are always shy and Clare with Simon was no exception. I always say ‘your kids will want photos of parents. These will be the most important portraits for them in years to come’
More formal sit down family portraits are fun. Making lion roar noises to me
The final goal for the family was to have family photography on their walls. They chose to have a multi-aperture frame and collection with the canvas of each child. A beautiful selection to remember these every day now.
If you are looking for a family photographer in West Lothian, feel free to explore my photography page and get in touch. I’m excited to find out what your family enjoy doing together and document your special bond.