The North Family - Autumn Family Photography at Hollybank

The North family’s session was one of those shoots that felt like it had been a long time coming.

Lyndal and James, with Izzy and Alex, met me out at Hollybank on the 2nd of May for their family photography session. We had rescheduled this shoot about four times thanks to the usual real-life mix of sickness, weather and kids’ sport, so I was very glad when we finally made it happen.

And honestly, it was worth the wait.

Meet the Family:

This session was just the four of them: Lyndal and James, their 13-year-old daughter Izzy, and their 10-year-old son Alex.

One of the lovely things about photographing kids at this age is that they’re not little little anymore, but they’re also not grown up. They can follow directions, sit still when I need them to, and understand what I’m asking — and there’s still so much personality there, and it’s also lovely to talk about something other than Paw Patrol!

Izzy and Alex were both super cruisy and easy to photograph, which made the whole morning feel relaxed from the start.

We met at Hollybank at 9:30 in the morning, which is a little earlier than I’d usually choose for a family session. But with kids’ sport on that day, it was the time that worked best for everyone.

And I’m actually so glad we did.

The light was beautiful. We were properly into autumn by then, and Hollybank was absolutely doing its autumn thing. We had originally booked the shoot about a month earlier but the weather meant we needed to reschedule. a few days later I had posted on my social media how the leaves were just starting to turn out at Hollybank and Lyndal had replied expressing her disappointment that they had to move their session and she was really hoping for the leaves. But honestly it was a good thing we did move it because by the time their session did come around the colour was in full swing and autumn was autumning in the best possible way.

One of my favourite parts of living in Tasmania is that we get four really distinct seasons, and autumn is my favourite of all of them.

Because the shoot was so easy, I had all the main family combinations photographed by about quarter past ten. That gave us extra time to slow down a little and create more variety, which is always a good thing when it comes time to choose images.

I photographed the whole family together, Lyndal and James together, each of the kids individually, the kids together, each child with each parent, and each parent with both kids. We also did some walking shots to keep everything feeling relaxed and natural.

Favourite Images:

Some of my favourite parts of the session were the shots that brought a little bit of Izzy and Alex’s personalities into the gallery.

Alex brought his soccer ball along because he plays soccer, so we included some photos of him playing around with it. Izzy plays netball, so we used the same ball for some netball-style passes and action shots too.

They were both in their nice clothes, not sports gear, but that actually made the images feel even cooler. It was a really nice mix of proper family portraits and little moments that said something about who they are right now.

That’s one of the things I love most about relaxed family photography. It doesn’t have to be completely candid, and it doesn’t have to be stiff or overly posed either. There’s room for both — the beautiful family portraits and the small personal details that make the photos feel like yours.

Artwork Choice:

At their viewing appointment, Lyndal and James chose a 10x10" 30-page album, along with a handful of matted prints.

An album was such a good fit for this session because there was so much variety in the gallery. The family portraits, the parent-and-child images, the autumn colours, the walking shots, Alex with his soccer ball, Izzy’s netball-style photos — they all work together as little micro stories from the morning.

That’s what I love about family photo albums. They let you include more than one favourite. You don’t have to narrow everything down to just the “main” image. You can tell the fuller story of the session, with all the small in-between pieces that might not belong as one big framed portrait, but absolutely deserve to be kept.

The matted prints will give them a few individual favourites to enjoy separately as well.

Wrap-Up:

I’m so glad this session finally came together for the North family. After so many reschedules, it felt very right that we ended up with a calm autumn morning at Hollybank, beautiful light, easy kids, and a gallery with so much personality in it.

If you’ve been meaning to update your own family photos, but life keeps getting in the way, I promise you’re not the only one. Between sport, weather, sickness and normal family chaos, sometimes it takes a few attempts.

But when it does finally happen, it’s worth making space for.

You’re always welcome to get in touch, and we can organise a planning appointment to talk through what would work best for your family.