Submitted by Darren on
W.C. Fields famously said, “Never work with animals or children”. Until recently I’ve never needed to pay any attention to the quote.
I love photographing children as they are always far more natural on camera than adults. And I’ve photographed animals in the past, from visits to the zoo to capturing dogs playing with kids. However, I had never been asked to photograph cats before… and so my first experience of the challenges of photographing animals began.
Cat asked for a photoshoot with two elements to it – one with the whole family at Chesterton Windmill in Warwickshire and the other with just her and her partner and her two cats at home. I didn’t think twice to the request and so off I went to Cat’s house to meet her two cats.
I don’t know much about cats, but I quickly learnt that they do not respond well to being directed! In fact, the more we tried to get the cats to pose with Cat and her partner, the more they resisted and ran away.
Ok this was going to be much trickier than I thought! In the end the only way I could capture photos of Cat’s pets was when I went to them, which meant following them behind the sofa, under the table, behind the plants… I’ve never had to work so hard for a photo shoot! Once the cats had completely humiliated me, the tabby decided that they actually quite liked the camera and I managed to capture a handful of photos of the photogenic felines.
It was time to venture to Chesterton Windmill, a famous landmark near Leamington. Despite the chilly weather, I was back in my element. With all of Cat’s family now present it was time for my subjects to do the work!
Chesterton Windmill is a perfect place to carry out family photoshoots. It stands on top of a hill and has plenty of roaming landscape around it. Dating back to the 17th century it has a unique structure, set on six pillars linked by semi-circular arches, which makes for some interesting backdrops.
The kids were keen to run around and enjoy the open space that was presented to them. In the meantime, it was time to get the kites out and make the most of the gusty weather. After some impressive kite displays it was time to capture more formal poses of the family before taking advantage of some fun silhouette shots.
I believe that outdoor documentary photoshoots are the best way to capture genuine, fun memories of families. It’s always a privilege to capture the smiles, laughter and interactions between the different generations and I feel very lucky to genuinely love my job as a documentary photographer.
After another enjoyable day out with a lovely family, I reflected on my learnings of the day. I concluded that children are a million times easier to photograph than cats! In fact, in the words of Pam Brown, “Cats can work out mathematically the exact place to sit that will cause most inconvenience”.
Leamington Spa Family Photography
