Christmas Portraits – a busy time of year

I love Christmas. As much as I know it is a fixed date, I always seem to have a last minute rush to get everything sorted before the big close-down. The rest of the world also seems to do the same, and you would have thought, knowing that it is definintely going to happen each year, that it might get easier…. but it never does. So consequently my updates have been a bit sparse of late. Nevermind….

A few weeks ago, I headed down to London for a few appointments, and to spend some time with friends at their new house. Unfortunately one of the portrait sessions had to be postponed due to a leaky roof (theirs not mine), but my Sunday session was still on.

My Aunt asked me to take some photographs of her grandchildren (my second cousins? never sure of family trees). So I arranged with Jolyon and Nina to meet up with their boys, Casper, Jeremy and Hugo, at Kew Gardens. I also arranged for my brother, John, and his two boys to meet Kat and our two boys, so it was a big family (very boy-ish) kids gathering.

And what a great day for it – it was absolutely hammering it down with rain when we arrived. Luckily, there is a good indoor area for children, Climbers and Creepers, so John and Kat headed there to play, while I planned a strategy for Jolyon’s family. Thankfully the rain blew through and the sky cleared, and there was a lovely winter light (and as it does in winter, it was disappearing fast!).

So the challenge was on to get the best of the light before the next downpour rolled in. Thankfully Kew is a great place for photographs – plenty of places to get interesting shots, but I had to find places that were not completely soaking wet, and where the boys could still have fun.

We don’t get to see Jolyon, Nina and the boys as much as we should – we all have busy family and work lives etc, so it was great to spend some time with them all. It was particularly amazing to see how much Hugo had grown. He is my godson, but I hadn’t seen him for about six months, and the change was remarkable, and he is a lovely boy. He certainly takes after Nina’s side, rather than the older two who look more like Jolyon’s side, and he definitely has his own personality – I can empathise having to put up with two older brothers – you stand your ground Hugo…

We also managed to squeeze in a bit of time at the end to get some shots of Nina and Jolyon – the first since their wedding in 2001, so they were due an update.

Despite the weather, I had a great time, it was fantastic to see them all, and got some great shots in there too.

Here is a sneak preview…