KATIE & BEN | FAMILY SESSION AT MCLAREN FALLS PARK
This session was supposed to be the day before, at the beach. The weather wasn’t looking great so I talked with Katie and we went through the options. We moved it a day and switched to McLaren Falls Park instead, which ended up suiting their family better anyway. That’s the kind of thing I’m happy to adjust, there’s no point pushing ahead if it’s going to affect the photos or the experience.
I had a plan for the session, but the girls had a better one. About fifteen minutes in I realised they loved little scenarios more than posing, so I leaned into that. Run up to mum and give her a love ambush. Tell her she’s pretty. Squeeze her until she laughs. That kind of thing. The results were so much better than anything I could have directed.
Katie is a photographer herself, so she had a strong eye for what she liked and I made sure to include her input as we went. She knew how she wanted the girls to stand, what felt right, what didn’t. It’s always good when a client knows what they want, it makes the session sharper.
Ben was great. He showed up, he tried hard, and by the end I could tell he had put his full effort in. We went about 75 minutes and in hindsight 45 would have been the sweet spot. That’s a lesson I took from the day. The girls could have gone all afternoon though, they were laughing and hugging and running around the whole time.
Katie told me afterwards that going through the photos made her cry. That’s the best feedback I can get.
Because Katie edits her own work, I gave her a set of the raw files alongside the edited gallery so she could process them in her own darker style if she wanted to. It’s not something I’d normally do, but when someone speaks the language, it makes sense.
— Tony
