Photos At The Park | The Solc Family Enjoy A Sunday Morning At Lemoine Point
/Each time I photograph a family get together, there is an organizer who plans it all. In this case, it was Amy. She contacted me a couple of months ago, asking if we could do some photographs of their four families (parents and three adult siblings with their partners), on a Sunday morning in June, right before they disbanded to travel back home to their respective cities… Not everyone was from Kingston, and this was a long time in the planning for them - getting together, and then finding a little time for photos.
I of course jumped at this opportunity.
During family get-togethers, there’s often someone within the family who takes photos… but it’s more awkward because they never get to be in the photos themselves (trust me, I know… this is why this year, we’ve hired Tim Forbes to be our family photographer so we can all hang out and ALL be in the photo)
So I jump at the chance of being the photographer to help the family all be present with each other.
Now, for the Solc family, it was important to take a few traditional photos.
Candids were great, they said, but we also want some of all of us all together, and a few of each family.
Well, of course, we can take some time to do this, I said!
And Lemoine Point Park is such a great place for this - it’s green and has numerous pathways that are nice and private, plus the water…. plus the gazebo, on the off-chance it rains that day (which was a real possibility for the day that we met up with the Solc family - I’d looked at the forecast, and it was 50/50 for it to rain that day…. luckily, it didn’t!)
A Whirlwind Session With The Solc Family
This was a whirlwind session. Because we did so much in the span of just 45 minutes or so.
They brought a ball and played soccer. During this time, I tried to grab some action shots, which can be tricky as the playing field is big… which means I need to use my zoom lens or risk missing the action. I got a few shots that are pretty fun!
After that, we went over to the playground and they played various games that involved tagging each other while blindfolded. It seemed super fun, but my main focus was on running after the person who was “it”, and trying to get more action shots! Phew. It was a challenge!
After that, we went down to the water. We took a family photo on a log, then they went to a nearby dock and looked at the water to see if they could find fish.
Then, we walked down a path into the forest (remarking that there weren’t that many mosquitoes yet… ) and we took a little time to do family photos there.
We took photos of each individual family, plus a bunch of various groupings.
My favourite photos were the photobombing ones… you know, when a family was lined up nicely for the photo, and then the boys or aunties ran through the image haha. Those are super fun :)
After these group shots, we tried going to find some birds to feed. Alas, the mosquitoes had come out in full force by then, and the chickadees were nowhere to be found…
So we headed back.
Right before we finished for the day, they took a moment to recreate a photo from their childhood. We called it the bum photo - when everyone looks through their legs with their bums pointed to the camera. Apparently, when Amy and her siblings were little, they did this photo at their family farm. Now, decades later, we took a very similar photo with everyone grown up.
And last but not least, we got a bubble blowing photo. I happened to have a bunch of bubbles in my car, so I snapped a quick photo of one of the boys enjoying them for a wee moment before they all had to run home. His aunties were on their way back home to the US, so this little photoshoot was perfectly timed for them to stretch their feet after their family breakfast before a very long drive home.
And that was a wrap. ❤️
TIP: Next time you’re getting your family together, hire a professional photographer and have them do any combo of candid and posed photos - it’s super fun to look back on later, and frees you up from having to be the one behind the camera!