Ryan, Jenn, Josh & Ryley

This family holds a special place in my heart as I feel like I have been with them since the beginning. I photographed Jenn and Ryan's wedding, then have captured their family photo every year since and even done a one on one workshop with Ryan. He is the recorder of everything their family does and so he wanted to be able to capture better photos during the year between their annual sessions with me so that their family back home could get a real feel of their lives here in Bermuda. We have done beach shoots and a couple at Ft Scaur and always around the kids birthdays but this year, they felt inspired to do something a little different. Since both Jenn and Ryan work, they spend every weekend together as a family and pack it full of  adventures to make up for the limited time during the week. They try to take the kids to new locations and so it made sense to make an outing out of the photo shoot. We went to Spittal Pond, where none of us had been in a long time and it turned out to be the best location - I was thrilled with the variety of backdrops and the adventure it provide for the family.

These two were so cute together. And they loved the miniature chairs I brought along - my uncle made these when I was a child and I remember adoring them when I was little and so it is always fun to relive my own memories through other kids.

Couldn't choose between the black and white and colour versions of this photo - just so cute with his arm on her shoulder and holding hands and both looking gorgeous - heaven.

Jenn found hightops for all of them and they just make the outfits - really sets the stage for the kind of people they are - colourful, fun yet casual and relaxed. Love love love.

Four year old Josh, or Joshua Giraffe as he is nicknamed at home, is all boy. He adores sports like golf, hockey and soccer and his fave is wrestling with his Daddy any chance he can get. He also loves to spend time practicing his ABCs and numbers on paper after paper after paper and the bigger the paper, the bigger the letters become. He is amazing at drawing families - be it monster families, hurricane families and he even drew a darling family portrait. As soon as there is a group of anything, he instantly declares it a family and gets very specific about which is the Mummy, the Daddy the baby sister and the big brother. 

Although Ryley's hairband did not last long, I do so adore the shots we did get with her wearing it - again, such a simple detail but just makes the portrait special.

Ryley Roozle or Ryley Roo is one of extremes. This little two year old will be overflowing with happiness, terrifyingly mischievous or when it all goes bad, she deteriorates like the little girl in the poem with a curl in the middle of her forehead! Her parents always tell her how lucky she is that she is cute. She has no fear and can take a tumble and just get up and keep going. She is obsessed with play dough, though her idea of playing with it entails taking all the colours out of their separate containers, mixing them all up together , sticking markers or crayons into the multi coloured blob, and then stuffing the new creations back into the containers again before starting all over again.

the day after our shoot, Jenn was going to be heading out to the Philippines to work on a Habitat for Humanity project for a few weeks. She decided to make a wee cut out of herself and stick it on the globe to show the children where she was going. It was so adorable watching them grasp the concept and talk about what she would be doing - just a beautiful thing.

I have photographed the kids with their favourite toy Lion and Monkey before and I know that Ryan has a habit of recording their growth in comparison to their beloved friends so we obviously had to get at least a few shots of the kids with their animals.

We wanted along the paths until we reached the casurina forest. One of Josh's darling family portraits had really struck a chord so Jenn had painstakingly transferred the picture into felt and made it into a family flag. The kids really loved to point out who each person in the flag was, especially themselves.

Jenn had been inspired by some other shoots where the clients layered their clothing and was aiming for a real autumnal feel to their session. She did an amazing job of coordinating outfits and sending me snaps of the planned wardrobe. And somehow, she managed to dress everyone in their favourite colours, and it still all be in keeping with a certain palette.

                      

I think I loved this hat more than the hair piece if that is possible - so much so that I asked if I could use it for shoots once Ryley has grown out of it. Can you get over the lashes on this child? They are long and curly and her sweet blue eyes sparkle - such a honey.

These simple wooden balance bikes are the kids faves - they adore to ride them around their garden or on outings and they are so good for helping children learn to get their balance in preparation for riding a big kid bike.

The kids both just had their birthdays so they had a combined super hero party and Jenn's mum made all the kids capes and masks. Ryley and Josh love theirs and they even have their initials on the backs, with pretty different fabric on the inside.

At this stage, Ryley had had enough and wasn't keen on doing even one photo with her super hero gear on. But I even love capturing the meltdowns as it is all part of life and that is what I like to capture at its most pure.

Josh was such a darling and came to the rescue like a true hero and cuddled his baby sister to make her feel better.

Once we walked back to the car, Ryley felt a little better so we tried one more fun prop just as the sun was getting gorgeous and golden.

Thanks to the four of you for once again, and amazing shoot - I think they are getting better and better. Loved the location, the styling, the props and most of all, the love your family shares. xxxx