Following on from last week’s “2020 // BEST OF: HORSE & RIDER PHOTO SHOOTS” I’m sharing with you some of my favourite images from 2020’s Family & Animal Photo Shoots.

I love the chaos of a good Family & Animal Photo Shoot! 🤗 Whether it’s an out of control puppy running laps around us all, kids being cheeky and showing off or horses demonstrating their ‘airs above the ground’ skills at an inappropriate moment I lap it all up! You can in fact see some of the above, in my favourite outtakes from last year blog here: “2020 PHOTO SHOOT OUTTAKES.”

I think these inevitable moments on any part of a Photo Shoot are very much part of the story and most people end up including them in an Album or Digital Collection in some capacity! However as well as these hilarious moments I do love capturing the dynamics of a family along with their four legged friends! 🐶🐴🐥🦆🐮🐱

I’ve worked in Photography studios where you have white backgrounds and generic props and get through as many Photo Shoots as you possibly can in a day. From a photographers point of view it’s uninspiring as due to the time constraints you get very little time to get to know your subjects, discover their unique dynamics and produce anything other than fairly standard shots. With a Family & Animals Shoot I work closely with my clients to figure out the best location for their shoot, this might be at home or at a favourite spot of theirs and by the time you’ve introduced the animals, shaken off those initial and inevitable few camera nerves, everyone is rearing to go! (Not literally please horses – keep those hooves on the ground!)

As a photographer I get an immense amount of satisfaction from capturing what I feel is a much more genuine picture of that family and their unique dynamics. There is usually ‘The Big Shot’ where absolutely no one is left out. For this I’m usually squeaking toys for dogs, playing horse noises on my phone for the horses, jumping up and down to keep kids’ attention and making some truly awful jokes to keep everyone laughing…. definitely always at and not with me!! 😂

However, as well as the big shot there are the countless less posed, more natural moments which occur throughout the shoot and are the fabric of a beautiful Album or Wall Art Gallery. I personally feel these are best achieved when people are at their most relaxed. Having animals involved in a Family Photo Shoot definitely helps with this. Not, necessarily because the animals behave beautifully for the entire shoot 😆 but because the camera becomes an insignificant part of the process and this definitely allows for the magic to happen.

But enough waffling from me. I hope you enjoy the images below which are some of my favourites from 2020’s Family & Animal Photo Shoots. I am certainly looking forward to some more fun filled shoots this year. They do come with a disclaimer though… If we’re all not a little bit exhausted, someone’s not covered in mud and your cheeks aren’t sore from laughing then I’ve not done my job properly! ☺️

Coming up next time: ‘2020 // The Best of: Horses At Liberty Photo Shoots’

Ciara x

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