Working as a commercial children’s photographer is often easier than working with adults. Children don’t have the inhibitions that adults have, they’re not self conscious or vain. They just tend to be themselves. The challenge can often be getting the exact result that you want from a photoshoot. This can simply be a portrait or something more challenging and on a commercial level, such as lifestyle photography or an advertising photoshoot. I’ve worked with lots of children from model agencies on numerous occasions and they do tend to have more confidence, more experience and can take direction a little bit easier. This does make for a smoother photoshoot and will enable me to get the results that the client needs.

The images that you see here were all taken on privately commissioned photoshoots, so there was no brief. The only brief was to get natural photos of children having fun and being themselves. So there’s still some direction required from my side and this requires engagement and ability to read how the kids are feeling. Sometimes they are tired, sometimes they are nervous and sometimes they’re absolute lunatics! My job is to engage with them, put both them and their parents at ease and capture a range of portraits and reportage images. Sometimes it’s a challenge and often we have to work around issues with the great British weather but most of the time I leave with happy clients.