The Perfect Christmas Gift for Grandad - creating an Award-Winning Family Portrait
"Rachel, we are so delighted with the beautiful photos you took recently. Not only did you take the time to get to know us and what our expectations were, but you managed to capture our home, our family and our personalities. Your warm and friendly approach instantly put us at ease, which made for a lovely family afternoon photo shoot. How you managed to also get the 3 dogs to pose in the photos is beyond me! Thank you so much for capturing some special moments that we will treasure."
This time last year I had a call from a lovely lady, who was looking for a Christmas Present for her father. He had asked for a family portrait of her family for his wall, as due to his ill health he couldn’t see them all as often as he would like. Despite deadlines for Christmas being tight, the answer was of course yes, as I know that such portraits are important to bringing love and happiness to loved ones. And now a year on, we’ve found this is more so the case than ever!
Creating family portraits against the backdrop of a family home is something I love to do for my clients, after all, its the people they love the most in the place they love the most! This home in a gorgeous typically english Sussex village had lots of options, including a courtyard and a rustic wooden gate, all of which added to the story.
Starting with a cup of tea and a chat, our portrait session was relaxed and fun, and I got to know the family and a few of their funny stories. Time flew by, and around an hour later I left with a set of beautiful portraits.
Because our turnaround needed to meet Christmas deadlines, I arranged to visit the family again just a few days later for their Viewing and Ordering Session. This is when we sit down together and go through the portraits we’ve created, selecting their favourites and working out how best to display them. And not only did Grandad receive a beautiful frame for his bedroom wall, but the family now have a gorgeous family portrait in pride of place in their kitchen too, along with a Storybook album to treasure.
And it just so happened that these very portraits were considered to be worthy of a few awards too! The family kindly allowed me to enter them with the Master Photographers Association Monthly, Regional and National Awards, where I received two Highly Commended certificates, two Merits and then a Finalist Award in Portraiture in the South East of England! The icing on the cake for just a normal client portrait session, with the sole aim of creating something wonderful as a gift.
If you would love a timeless Family Portrait for your loved ones walls, please drop me a message. A Family Portrait can make the perfect gift for tricky to buy family members, with anniversaries and big birthdays being a fantastic reason to have one taken.
And knowing that these portraits will being joy to their families for years to come… that’s why I adore my job.
With love, Rachel xx
