Day in the Life Family Photoshoot in London

I’ve been photographing Maja and her family since she was born, returning each year to make a new set of Day in the Life photographs.

I turn up, spend time with the family, and photograph whatever happens. No posing. No direction. No trying to turn an ordinary family day into something it isn’t.

A Day in the Life family photoshoot is not about perfect outfits, immaculate rooms, or everyone smiling neatly at the camera. It is about the small things. The bedroom in the morning. Breakfast. Toys on the floor. Conversations through the morning. The half-finished cup of tea. The cat wandering through the frame as if it owns the place, which, let’s be honest, it probably does.

Those are the things that disappear from our memories unless they are photographed.

Photographing the normal

When I photograph a family at home, my job is not to organise the day. It is to tell the story of the day.

That might mean photographing a child still wrapped in the warmth of the morning, or a parent trying to get the day moving while everything else happens around them.

Sometimes the picture is in the big expression. Sometimes it is in the corner of the room or the look between two people.

This kind of family photography is slow in one sense, but fast in another. I am not asking anyone to stop and repeat things, but I am always watching.

Light, composition and moment are still important, but they have to serve the story. The photograph has to feel as though it belongs to the family, not that the photographer set it up.

The value of ordinary days

I think we sometimes underestimate ordinary days because they do not feel important at the time.

Getting dressed. Playing on the floor. Helping in the kitchen. Sitting at the table. Moving from room to room. These things happen so often.

But years later, they are exactly the things that we forget about.

The way a house felt when the children were small. The shape of a favourite toy. The wallpaper. The kitchen table. The way someone stood in a doorway. It is all part of the family story, even if none of it seems important at the time.

That is why I love photographing this kind of session.

At home, where the real story is

For this session, most of the story happens indoors, which I think suits the photographs beautifully.

There is a closeness to family photography at home that is hard to recreate anywhere else. Children behave differently in their own space. Parents relax more.

A documentary family photoshoot does not need a perfect house. In fact, it is better when the home looks lived in. The photographs become richer because they include the context of family life. The furniture, the toys, the windows, the stairs, the bits of life that would perhaps normally be tidied away.

Black and white, colour, and feeling

Although I photograph a lot of family work in black and white, I do not think one approach is better than the other.

Some scenes ask for colour. Others feel stronger when reduced to tone, shape and expression. With Day in the Life photography, I tend to let the pictures decide. If colour helps describe the room, the light, or the atmosphere, then it stays. If black and white gets closer to the feeling of the moment, then I will often go that way.

What matters most is the emotion.

These photographs move between quiet moments, playful ones, and the slightly strange bits that make family life what it is.

A record for later

The real value of a Day in the Life photoshoot is not always obvious straight away.

Of course, the pictures are lovely to have now. But I think their importance grows over time. They become a record of a family as it really was.

Children change so quickly. Homes change. Routines change. The tiny details that feel permanent today can vanish without warning. Documentary family photography gives those details some kind of permanence.

And for me, that is the privilege of this work. I get to make photographs that are not just about how people looked, but how life felt around them.

Book a Day in the Life family photoshoot

A Day in the Life family photoshoot is relaxed, natural and completely unposed. There is no performance required, no need to prepare, and absolutely no need for everyone to behave perfectly.

In fact, please don’t.

If you would like a natural, documentary family photoshoot at home, you can find fees and book your slot here.