I enjoyed spending a couple of hours with this family! It made good and was relaxing, at the same time, to admire Annasole, Martin & Ottavio’s playtime: Annasole has grown up so much since the last time I saw her and she has now become a little woman! Martin has the power to capture immediately any spectator with his quick, active and challenging personality, whilst Ottavio is such a happy, uncomplicated and chubby soul, quite effervescent! Thank you for trusting me, Elisa & George! Your home is most welcoming and your pets are also beautiful!!
“Bonds of family and love can withstand any storm and then life, even with its trials, can still be a beautiful and meaningful journey” – Jyoti Patel
In September 2021 I had the pleasure to take some family portraits of Francesca with her husband Massimo, and their beautiful kids duo, Irene and Mattia. We met in Parco Ferrari and the children were in a good mood. Irene displayed an outgoing personality and Mattia was easily carried away by his big sister’s excitement! I managed to take a short video, that I find to be a precious visual memory of a lovely, LIVELY time spent together! Thank you Francesca & Massimo for trusting my photographic capabilities!
I am hereby happy to publish two shoots taken in Parma in September 2021. I have known these 2 families for a while: their kids ARE terrific! The weather and the lighting were also perfect.
Let’s start with Arianna, Diletta & Davide: until a short while ago, Arianna was a child, and now she’s coming out with teenage expressions?! Thank you for trusting me in helping to provide these lovely memories! The video-teaser was taken with my iPhone 🙂
Blandine and Laetitia are sisters, they are very close and had children a few years apart. Like their moms, their little ones have something special! I cherish these girls and was really happy and honored to take some portraits of their growing families. It was a wonderful day spent with a lively, and at times explosive young crewe!, that I hold dear in my heart! I didn’t remember there were so many marvelous shots!!
I have known these little ones for a while. I met Tomomi (their lovely mum) in 2015 and took pictures to Ami. Then Emi joined the family’s crew one year later: the first time I saw her, she was only 6 days old! Tomomi and I stayed in touch and we currently enjoy meeting up for a photo- shoot 2 or 3 times a year.
On this occasion, my ambitious idea & hope was to take a couple of professional, smart portraits that might eventually bring me some recognition. But Ami and Emi’s view point was slightly different…they wanted to have fun and play around! Actually they were both excited to join us in the studio and to be the shoot’s stars. Ami, the little one, was the leader of the show and is a natural poser!! I quickly realised that, more or less, I was at their mercy.
I believe that at the end of our shoot our expectations matched. I am quite hard on the quality of my work but I really think that some of their pictures are beautiful and these little sisters are themselves and are behaving in a spontaneous way. It was brilliant to watch them playing around and being so lively.
It was a blustery, coldish day in the Meadows. However, Erica and I managed to meet up and we eventually took some portraits of her children, Florence and George. They were both growing fast: George was acting now like a little adult, he was pretty talkative and much more outgoing, whilst Florence was both a princess and an “amazon”, determined and quite independent. She definitely was an attentive and curious observer. It was a positive feeling to admire them playing thoughtlessly!
I believe that shooting with siblings can be easier than with only one child, at least in the beginning, as they know each other and there is usually an intimacy bond between them. Also, because there are 2 or 3 of them, they feel more secure and relaxed when they are asked to pose in front of the camera. We were in a park so they were free to run and play wherever they wanted. In most of the shoot, my approach was that more of a photo-reportage even towards the end of it, I asked them to pose for me which they did. In a couple of images, Florence reminded me of “Alice in Wonderland”…
First time I took pictures of Lola, she was 3 years old. In September 2020 she was 5 years and a half and in the meanwhile, the year before, she had welcomed a baby brother, Matisse. By memory Lola was always quick, lively and with an outgoing personality. Now she was a little actress-princess and also a natural leader: she managed pretty seriously to involve adults and other kids in her games! Playing with her for an hour made me burn the most calories of the whole week!
We gathered with Blandine, their mum, and a mutual friend, at Portobello and I had the pleasure to meet beautiful Matisse. It was his first trip to the seashore and he literally went mad for this sandy experience! He loved speedy crawling on the sand at the point that as Blandine mentioned, he looked like one of the baby tortoises that, once the eggs hatch, are running towards the sea to jump into the water. He was into everything, super-focused on whatever was happening close to him but at the same time he was quite chilled and relaxed. When I work or spend time with children, I realise that time flies quickly and that their world is uncomplicated and this is priceless. It was a windy but pleasant afternoon.
The reasoning behind this photo article is that it doesn’t have to be perfect to be a good one. An image must be purposeful, it has to “speak” to you. One or a few mistakes can still make a success. I refer to the photo below as an example:
Technically defective, this is one of the pictures I will remember for a very long time. To start with, it was good fun to take a few shots in the garden. I like Ruth & Joshua (mom & son), the two subjects and I know, this is personal! I edited it in black & white since this gives a long-lasting memory effect to the photo : it provides an illusion of an old shot, even although it was taken a few days ago.
The cropping is severe and sharp, resulting in a strong close-up (I chose to remove a toy – a distractive element – from Joshua’s hand) but the viewer focuses on Ruth’s eyes, the center of the composition. There was no need to tell Joshua to smile, I just asked him to kiss his mother and he grabbed her around the neck. He is an happy child and while we were shooting, he was even louder in his lively euphoria! They were both delighted and overwhelmed by joy. Some specific out-of-focus photos can work rather well and I believe this is one of these cases. It can give a fresh and lively impact to the shot.
I know all of these details because I was with them but I bet that an observer, who doesn’t know anything about them or the photo, can catch this feeling and imagine the kind of moment it was. Without taking any value away from techniques and rules, I would say that we don’t have to struggle to seek perfection. We do need “living” and lasting images, carrying a meaning or a concept.
If you have a vision and strongly believe in your work, even although it is imperfect, you can still consider it valuable and worth including it in your portfolio.
Enjoy the rest of the photos of Joshua, his mom Ruth and his little brother Samuel, in the belly!
These pictures look like regular shots to me. I had known Francesca for a while so we met in the afternoon at the park to get some shots of her daughter Irene, who was now 18 months old and has grown up a lot in the last 6 months. She was currently deep into the “discovering” fase, running everywhere and is also starting to interact with people and to communicate in her own ways. She was intelligent, quick, and could be reasonably a bit stubborn! But her smile just melted our hearts! It was quite late when we started shooting so not so many photos taken. But from these I think you can see how expressive she was, with her enthusiasm and her lively nature. Enjoy these memories of early 2020!
Raquel has an infectious zest for living and stands out for her optimism, and I believe she passed these gifts on to her son Eric! Despite the dullness and silence of that November day, the company of these two was so heart-warming and a real enlightenment! The breath-taking autumn colours at the Botanic Garden did the rest, becoming the second protagonist…Enjoy these memories!
We were close to Halloween and I accompanied Catrìona to Ayr, on her way to visit her brother Campbell. It was a good opportunity for us all to have a coffee and a chat with Wendy, followed by a walk on the beach, where I took a few photos of her kids. I have always loved the West coast, that impresses me with its wildness, the strong winds and wide open spaces. Enjoy these lovely memories!
I remember clearly the morning when I met Elisa for a coffee at Cappelli and she told me that she was expecting for the second time. There was also Mattia with us, her eldest son. On this occasion I saw a beautiful sparkle in Elisa’s eyes, she was radiant! Little Leonardo (Leo!) was in a hurry so he was born a month early, but this did not create a flaw, as he was just perfect and very much loved by his parents and a proud big brother!
I was delighted to have Elisa and the kids in the studio for a quick Welcome session to little Leo, who was, more or less, cooperative! Enjoy these beautiful memories!
“If we wandered around this world with the typical carelessness of a child who falls asleep in the middle of a crowd, this society would not even be able to worry us: no more than it would be able to affect the long and deep breathing of the child who is sleeping”- Christian Bobin
It is always great to have clients return for yet another shoot. I photographed several times Caterina & her beautiful duo over the years. This time they came to the studio where we used indoor lighting and a white backdrop to capture the beauty of her family. Not everyone was too keen on the shoot initially, but as we continued, they were won over and the fun started! Thank you lovely Olivieri fam for your continual support. May we keep on doing this for many years to come. I am looking forward to our next time together!
Erica, Ewan’s sister (= the groom in the previous wedding post!), has two wonderful children, Florence & George, with her husband Mark. I was delighted to take some photos of this close-knit family. Actually their photo-session turned out to be an “epic one” because of : 1) the location which was fantastic 2) so were the protagonists+ 3) we had a PROPER summer day in Scotland! The kids were cooperative during the photo shoot, and the whole setting worked in our favor. I think it was one of the best photo-shoots I’ve ever done! Thank you, Bramhalls, for trusting my photographic skills!
Hey, check this out…They are framed!
Spending time with Erica is a pleasure. I don’t say this only because she is one of my friends. I can say this because I see who she is for real: an honest, generous, adventurous and brave soul with a strong sense of duty and a caring attitude towards people. Yes, I really like her. I also enjoy spending time with her little two extensions, “King” George & “dancing princess” Florence.
It started like this : she wanted me to take picture of her kids because she had a good feeling about me. So a couple of years ago she chose me over thousands of choices. She trusted me from the beginning and this moves me almost to tears. I admire her sense of reality and pragmatism and I see the deep love and bond she has with her family. Photography allows people to create networks and to discover families ties and I had the chance to get to know a good part of her family and, trust me, they are amazing, enjoyable people.
When last night she texted me with the picture of the prints of the kids, I was delighted first with the results themselves (they are good shots) but also with a sort of pride coming from the fact of having my photos hanging on their living-room wall where all their guests can see them.
Time goes by quickly but more than a few things make us happy and will be remembered : friendship, good shots and prints!
What a privilege it was to spend a beautiful Spring afternoon with Tomomi’s family. Purity, love and bundles of joy! We gathered in Parco Ferrari, a true institution of our neighborhood! The girls looked so happy playing together in their kimonos, and I could see that they all were going to have lots of fun together! Enjoy these photo-memories. Blessings!
The photo below is one of my all-times favorites, I really cherish it! I asked Ami, the elder, to hug her sister and the resulting portrait was quite natural. In the eyes I can see the naïveté of childhood, a sense of tranquillity and trust in her sister. This picture captures a sweet moment and freezes one fragment of time:
Elena Arvasi Portrait Photographer 