I’ve always loved photographing families outdoors, but this autumn I’ve started looking at locations differently.
Instead of beginning with a booking and then choosing where to go, I’ve been trying to notice places that make me want to pick up my camera. Sometimes it is the colour. Sometimes it is an ordinary patch of land that suddenly looks completely different when the evening light reaches it.
It began with a sunflower field. The next happened behind my own house.. I walked past one day, saw the light and couldn’t stop thinking about what I could create there.
The sunflower field
A field full of sunflowers already sounds like an obvious place for photographs, but what drew me to it wasn’t only the flowers. The owner told me they were being mowed down for mulch the following week and it broke my heart – I NEEDED to capture it, immediately. So I popped a model call out on my Insta stories and got inundated by over 100 people so the VERY next day, I was out in the field and my camera – huge thanks to the wonderful owners of the Flower Field in Haxby!
I wanted the photographs to feel warm and free, with movement rather than lots of careful posing. It was a chance to play with something slightly different and allow the surroundings to guide the session.
That shoot reminded me how much I blooming LOVED creating when I’m not trying to recreate something I have already done. I could respond to what was happening in front of me and see where the light took us.
The finished photographs were beautiful but what stayed with me was the feeling of making them.
Then I noticed the light behind my house
It was down the back of my lane, somewhere I see every day on the dog walk. I walk through it every day and then one evening, the light came through beautifully and made me think.. maybe someone miiiiight come?!
It wasn’t a dramatic landscape or somewhere I would normally tell a client to travel to. It was simply a familiar spot at exactly the right moment. Once I had seen what the light was doing, I knew I wanted to photograph someone there.
That session became proof that a location doesn’t have to look impressive in everyday life. Photography can be about noticing potential rather than finding somewhere conventionally perfect.
Most people could have walked past that lane without giving it another thought. In the right light, it became somewhere completely different.
Why autumn is perfect
Autumn asks you to pay attention because it doesn’t stay the same for very long.
A field can change within days. Leaves begin turning before you’ve quite noticed summer ending, and the light becomes softer as the evenings move earlier. There is a small window to act on an idea before the season moves on.
I think that is partly why autumn has made me feel more creative. There is less time to overthink everything.
The light also has a lovely warmth at this time of year. It sits lower in the sky and can transform places that seem unremarkable during the middle of the day. It has made me realise that good photographs aren’t dependent on finding the most impressive setting. The way a place feels matters much more so I’m going to start rolling with it!
A new creative project
These two sessions have inspired me to begin an ongoing creative series – whooo!
A few times a month, I’m going to follow an idea that excites me and invite somebody to help me bring it to life. The location might be beautiful in an obvious way, like the sunflower field, or it could be somewhere most people wouldn’t look at twice.
This project is partly about the photographs, but it is really about my own growth. I want to experiment more and become comfortable creating without needing to know exactly how everything will turn out.
Photography is my job and I’m incredibly lucky that it is. It is easy, though, for any creative person to become focused on getting everything right. These sessions are giving me room to try things and reconnect with the simple excitement of seeing an idea become real.
I’m still deciding what the series will be called, but “Still Developing” feels fitting. It acknowledges that creative growth is never really finished, and it has a quiet connection to photography too.
Your family doesn’t need a perfect location either
These sessions have also reminded me of something I want families to know: you don’t need a spectacular location to create meaningful photographs.
You need a place where you can relax and enough space for your family to be together. The light, movement and connection do far more than an impressive backdrop ever could.
Your children don’t need to stand still, and you don’t need to arrive knowing how to pose. We can walk, explore and allow the session to develop naturally. I’ll guide you when you need it without trying to make your family look like somebody else’s.
Autumn gives us a beautiful setting, but the photographs are still about you.
Following the next idea
I don’t know where the next creative session will happen yet, and that is part of what makes this project exciting.
It might begin with a patch of light I notice while driving or a colour combination I can suddenly picture. I may find another unexpected corner of York that deserves to be seen differently.
What I do know is that I want to keep paying attention to everything around me.
If you enjoy seeing the ideas behind photographs and watching ordinary places become something more, I’d love you to follow along with this new series over on Instagram and YouTube.
If you’re considering an autumn family photoshoot in York, you’re also very welcome to get in touch. You don’t need to arrive with a perfect location or a fully formed plan. We can begin with your family and create something that feels like you.
If you’re expecting a baby and would like to know more about a newborn session at my studio just outside York, please get in touch, I’d love to make it happen!
Best wishes,
Lucy xxx
