Before I started The Baby Studio officially I reached out to the Girl Expat community in Antwerp, which is, btw, a very supportive cool group of ladies that help anyone out starting fresh in Antwerp)
In this group I posted that I was thinking of starting my own Photography Business and asked if there were mama’s willing to stand in front of my camera with their kids. The response was massive and I suddenly had my calendar full of photoshoots of all types (it was also a test for me to see what was my thing…turns out, everything was my thing). 2 weeks later the Baby Studio was born!
These ladies got to know me pretty good and the fruits from those photoshoots still keep showing up. From time to time I get to photograph expat families and their kiddos.
The Watson family was about to go back to Michigan after 18 months in Antwerp and wanted a photoshoot in their favourite spots in Antwerp as a souvenir from their time in here.
So, for this photoshoot we decided to make a little walking tour so we could include 4 or 5 different locations in our session. I asked Stephanie to list their favourite places and we made our little route based on that.
We decided to start our photoshoot quite early (8:30h in the morning) so that the sun was lower, the temperatures not too high (this was shot during the heatwave) and there would be less people on the street.
I visited these places prior to the photoshoot to look for the best spots and to make sure there were no surprises during the actual photoshoot.
The photoshoot:
Batteries loaded, SD cards formatted, the weather was perfect, the kids were excited and we were ready to roll!!
Because the location was so important I made sure to include a lot of wide shots showcasing the surroundings.
With family sessions I also always make sure to make some separate portraits of the kids, mummy and daddy together without the kids, and with each kid separate. This gives some variety and focuses on the different connections between the family. The fact we had 5 different locations made this photoshoot dynamic and kept the kids excited because were always on exploring mode!
The Results:
I am always extremely lucky with my clients and this photoshoot was no exception! I am super happy about the light hitting on their backs, the spontaneous laughs and tickles, the occasional falls of Makena while twirling 😅.
The result is a big variety of images, from the big Grote Markt to the cozy path of the Vlaaikensgang. The low sun gives the images an orangy magical tint to is which I love!!
Take a look:
Shot with a Sony Alpha7III and a Tamron lens 28-75mm f2.8
Edited on Lightroom CC with my own presets