A guide to taking the perfect family holiday photo with Olivia Bossert

19th August 2017

World Photo Day is the perfect opportunity to show your camera some love. So to celebrate ‘World Photo Day’ we asked our photographer friend Olivia Bossert to share her tips and tricks on capturing the perfect family holiday snaps.

Here are some of her shots from her most recent shoot in Cornwall, featuring our new collection plus a special furry guest called Rex.

Do you have a favourite photograph from this shoot?

I’ve actually spent quite a long time trying to pin just one image down, but I don’t think I can do it! There are so many gorgeous ones, and they all work together to tell a story. I honestly love every image.

What was your inspiration for this family shoot?

I wanted to work with a real family for this, so I began to think about the people I knew who felt like a tight family knit. There were many options, but Elly and Rory came to mind first. Elly is a wonderful mum, and Rory is the most beautiful little boy, and they have such a wonderful bond, I knew that they had to be the subjects for this photoshoot!

What was it like shooting with a four-legged friend?

Tricky! Rex is a very lovely but very energetic dog, so you need to think fast and move fast! But all in all he was amazing. Rory loved playing with him, and I think Rex enjoyed it just as much. I made sure to keep my camera up to my eye at all time, and watched the action through my lens to be sure I didn’t miss any key moments between them.

My top 5 tips to taking the perfect family holiday snap are:

1. Don’t make your family face the sun! It feels like the right thing to do to want to light them with the sun, but you’ll just end up with squinty eyes and awkward smiles!
2. Get people moving! Ask your kids to run, or your wife to walk along the beach. Movement is the key to capturing images which look natural.
3. If you’re after candid images (which are my favourites!), keep your camera in hand and switched on at all times. A lot of modern point and shoot options also have a “facial recognition” option which will help your camera lock focus on faces! That means that when you see something lovely happening and you want to snap it, you’ll find it easier to do so quickly, without ruining the moment.
4. The best time of day for photos is always first light, or sunset. Take a walk in the hour that the sun is setting, and you’ll be guaranteed to get those beautiful, golden lit photographs.
5. Don’t make your photos all about big smiles. Some of my favourite images are actually when people look more serious, or when children are feeling a bit moody. Smiles are beautiful, and you should capture them, but adding in a few shots of less “traditionally happy” faces adds a little something extra to family photos.

What happens if it’s wet & windy?

Thankfully most modern cameras are weather tight, but be sure to check your equipment before you take it out in any rain. If you want to be extra careful, you can purchase weather resistant cases for cameras on websites like Amazon. But if your camera is weather resistant, get out in that rain! Embrace it. It makes for some really beautiful images.

Pro tip for rain: slow your shutter speed down as far as you can, and you’ll freeze the rain drops, which looks really cool!

As for wind, there’s nothing better than wind in long flowing hair, or dresses. It adds a lot of drama (especially on a cliff top near the sea with dramatic waves crashing below) so wrap up warm, get out there, and go on an adventure.

What can parents do to help a family photo go smoothly?

If you’re aiming to get natural photos of your children, the best thing you can do is get them playing and having fun, and snap that as it happens. A great prop I love to use is bubbles, specifically for really little children. All kids love bubbles, and they’ll chase them around quite happily while you take pictures of them.

Another tip is to get down to their level. It’s quite easy to stay standing, and look down on the little ones, but in actual fact you’ll get a much nicer angle if you crouch down and get to their height. The same goes for any pets; get as low to the floor as you can.

How do you choose the best backdrop?

I try to keep my backdrops as natural as possible, and avoid any strange colours popping out randomly. For example, if you’re in a field of green grass, and to the right hand side of that field is a large red tractor you don’t like the look of, angle everyone away from that so that you don’t get that distracting you in the background.

A big tip is to watch your horizons, if you’re by the sea, don’t let the horizon of the sea cross through anyone’s head, as it can be distracting. Also pay attention that there aren’t any strange objects poking out from behind people in the background. There’s nothing worse than seeing a traffic post in the background right behind someones head!

What is your typical camera setup on a shoot?

I keep things simple, always, no matter what I’m shooting. I have one camera in my hand, with one lens. I don’t use flash, because I like to be able to move quickly, and follow the natural movements of my models. Flash would mean I’d have to break that flow every time they changed position!

My lens of choice is a 50mm f.18, which is an excellent allrounder, especially for portraits. It can be quite affordable too, so if anyone is looking for a good portrait lens to get them started, I can highly recommend that one.

What software do you use to edit your snaps?

I edit everything in Adobe Lightroom CC, which is a subscription based program. The “photography” packages are with Adobe are quite affordable, so I’d recommend looking into that if you’re wanting to take your photography to the next level! It’s the easiest program to use, and makes editing colours, exposure, etc very quick to do.

Where’s your next photo-shoot?

I’m actually heading off to Switzerland next week to see my family, so I’ll no doubt be shooting lots of landscapes while I’m out there; something which has become a real hobby recently!

Thank you to Olivia Bossert for collaborating with us for this post. And once again, Happy World Photo Day!

Share your family photo taking tips & tricks by commenting below.

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