Widya & Lyon Beach Family Shoot

Heaven above. Sand below. Peace within

The lovely Widya contacted me for a family photoshoot and selected Sentosa as the place of the shoot because they were having a family staycation in one of the hotels nearby. I was really excited to photograph her family at the beach as it has been a really long time since I've done a shoot at a beach!

I'll admit, as a sun avoiding vampire, I've never been a fan of beaches ( no thanks to the hot and humid climate). But beaches tend to be one of the most beautiful places to photograph in, because the white sand tends to reflect and disperse light so beautifully on the subject. And when the skies are clear, the whole blue skies. blue waters and white sand look is just gorgeous!

A family photoshoot struggle ...

Let me be clear about something, planning a family photoshoot with young children in toil is HARD. Any mom or dad will know how stressful and difficult getting the entire gang dressed up and ready is. There is so much to prepare and when you invested so much into something, the last thing you want is for the photographs to not match your expectations.

Which is why I recently created a Family Photoshoot Guidebook specially for all my family clients. The guidebook covers a wide range of topics families would be interested to know such as my approach to photographing children, outfit recommendations , what to prepare etc. My hope is that the information in the guidebook will help ease the anxiety of planning for a family photoshoot and helps conjure up the best ingredients for a successful and smooth photo session.

Sweltering hot and long day

Still, I take my hats off to Lyon and Widya for braving the heat and hotel mishaps to be present with the girls that day.

It was an extremely long and hot day for me as this was the 3rd photoshoot of the day and 2nd under the blazing sun. I arrived well in advance to scout the location and did some session planning in my head. Let me tell you, I almost melted. Yes, it was a hot day and I got really worried it would continue to stay this hot when the family arrive as I wasn't sure if the young kids would be able to handle it.

But God was kind to us as roughly 5 minutes before Widya and family arrived, the heat suddenly subsided and the temperatures dropped instantly ! This is why I always recommend outdoor photoshoots to happen after 4pm as this is the time of the day where the light and temperature is the most conducive.

Daddy and Daughter

It was so sweet to see Lyon interacting with the 2 adorable princesses. A hands-on dad will forever be a blessing to a family and as the saying goes “Fathers, be your daughter’s first love and she’ll never settle for anything less”. A daughter needs a dad to be the standard against which she will judge all men.

Props!

And I'd give Widya and Lyon props (pun intended!) for being the most "Prop-perly" prepared family! Not only did they have matching hats for Mommy and Dyan , they also had toy binoculars, sand castle building set and a semi automatic bubble making gun!

These little toys were so helpful in recreating the fantasy world a child lives in!

Let the child be a child ...

My approach with photographing young children is simple - let kids be kids. Most of the time, I prefer to let them be themselves and guide them minimally while I focus on capturing their most authentic expressions. I believe that happy children means happy photographs.

A bubbly world !

Kudos to Daddy Lyon for continuing to churn all these beautiful bubbles that created such a magical moment for baby Dyan !

Heirloom ...

The photograph above has got to be my most favourite out of the entire shoot. I love how it captured the innocence of a child, the wind in their hair and the lightness of their feet. Isn't she such an absolute doll ?!

I've always been asked "Isn't it hard to photograph children?". And the answer is an affirmative "YES!". Yes, it -IS- very difficult to photograph young children. They are free-spirited young minds without a care in the world and they sure as heck do not care about photographs! But I also think family portraits are extremely important as they are such heirloom items! It documents a fleeting stage of our lives and when we look back at these pictures when the child is no longer a child, we would all agree that every effort made to capture these were entirely worthwhile.

Canon R6 and children

The new Canon mirrorless R6 has been such a game changer for me. When I used to photograph young children with my Canon 700D, getting an accurate focus consistently was close to impossible. Now, with the new lightning fast eye detecting/tracking AF (auto-focus), capturing active children is a breeze!

The set of photographs above were taken at the aperture of f2.5 and 1/2000 shutter speed. And for the most part, the R6 did remarkably well in focusing on the eye! I love how it allowed me to just focus on capturing the moment compositionally without having to worry about keeping the right things in focus!

Mommy & Daughter

It was truly eye-opening to witness the love and patience Widy had for her daughters. How blessed it must be to be so completely loved and accepted by another =)

It was such an honour to be part of this family's little beach photoshoot outing and I truly loved the pictures we captured. Every second spent with this lovely family had been so much fun and I hope to see them again!

~XOXO,

JACQUELINE