I thought I would share with you a few pics from our recent family trip to Hatchlands Park in Guilford to see the bluebell woods. 


When I’m photographing my own family, I don’t normally take my professional kit with me unless it’s a special shoot I’m doing with my boys like this one. Because I normally have a professional shoot every few days, I panic that something will happen to my kit when I’m out on a family trip and that I won’t have it ready for a shoot (have I ever told you I’m a bit of a worrier?!) Also, it’s nice to have some time off and not lug my kit around everywhere!


On professional shoots, I normally carry two pro camera bodies (5D’s if you’re curious), at least 3 lenses and a reflector….not overly practical every time I step out of the house! So when I’m taking snaps of my family, I grab my old Canon 400D and a 50mm F1.8 lens (which you can get for about £80). I like to challenge myself and just use one fixed lens (which you can’t zoom in and out). I don’t use either of these pieces of equipment on my professional shoots so I don’t have to worry about damaging them (phew!). The Canon 400D is the type of camera most parents bring along to my photography workshops…so I wanted to share the kind of family snaps that I take with this camera. 

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that I’ve actually made a rare appearance on my own blog! I don’t get to be in many of my own family photos, just the occasional time when I put the camera in Karl’s hands and make him take a pic! 


I haven’t done anything other than basic editing to these photos, so if you own a digital SLR camera, there is no reason why your family snaps can’t look more like this if you just learn the essentials of photography and take your camera off auto. And a quick shameless plug if you’re interested; there is just one space left on my next ‘Oh Snap! Photography for Parents’ workshop on 9th July, and 6 spaces left for the 8th October workshop. You can book your place here on MakeMe Workshops website.