Oooooooh weeeee. Cornwall backyard family photos have always been fun. Always. But they didn’t always happen as often as indoor sessions until indoor sessions were no longer an option.
When Sarah and Chris asked if we could do a shoot, my immediate thought was “YES!” Their boys are comical, expressive, high energy, inquisitive and just the right amount of wild. I knew I was guaranteed to be in for a great evening.
Sarah wanted to update their family portraits, so we spent 15 mins at the beginning of the session ticking those off the list. This is a great option available to anyone choosing to do a documentary session, so that you still get a couple of updated, classic family portraits to add to your collection. Once we had those covered, it was time to let the boys get on with the serious business of play.
And play they did! Backyards mean sprinklers and play structures – and, in this case, the two of those together. Who doesn’t love a bit of backyard watersliding? Or puddle jumping? It’s a bit of a miracle that the boys didn’t turn the sprinkler on their parents or each other (it was a close run thing at one point), but they definitely had a ball making a splash in the puddle at the bottom of the slide.
This session happened after supper, right around that time that kids get a little wild before bed. Blowing off steam outside on the skateboards, the bikes, the swings – it made perfect sense. It also allowed me to experience an intense amount of play with the boys in a relatively short period of time. I’ll never know how Chris and Sarah got them to bed after ice cream, but I laugh every time I think about it.
These sessions, in this season, feel like my opportunity to create a love letter for each of my families. An ode to togetherness in a time of confusion; to family connections; to parenthood at a time when it has never been a more demanding job. I’m watching for parents who are working hard, kids who are reveling in new freedom, families who are connecting in ways that are more intense because of limited social circles. These sessions, in this season, are more important to me than ever.
Here’s my ode to the Bentons, their wildness, and their sense of play:
I’m Ang – a Cornwall, Ontario-based photographer with a passion for capturing light and photographing natural moments in life as they happen for families in Ottawa, Brockville and throughout SD&G. My goal is to capture memories that you will cherish once the chaos of having kids has slowed down. I love meeting new families in their natural environment and getting in amongst the bedlam so that I can document the perfectly imperfect realities of daily life. Want to see more of what happens during my Cornwall backyard family photos? Start here!
