The children had loads of energy, and their daughter was especially good at jumping.

"High jump" by Gale Photography
The curved background makes it hard to see where the floor ends and the wall begins, so it makes her look really high off the ground.
Their son is very keen on badminton, and he had brought along his racquet and a shuttlecock to use as props for some action shots. Here I’ve thrown the shuttlecock with one hand, whilst firing the camera with the other hand.

"Badminton action" by Gale Photography
It was pure chance that in this shot the shuttlecock was right in front of his face, and between his eyes. It has not been put on afterwards in Adobe Photoshop; sometimes you just get lucky!
We also tried some more serious shots with the racquet.

"Differential focus" by Gale Photography
Here I’ve set a wide lens aperture to use what’s called “differential focus” in a creative way. The boy is nice and sharp against the dark background, whilst the racquet strings are well out of focus and give an attractive graduated pattern down the image.
With this dark background image of the girl, I used simple lighting from one main light, and used her hair and hands to frame her face. With the image converted to B&W, her expression made for a nice moody shot.

"B&W moody portrait" by Gale Photography
Finally, when we were back outside, I couldn’t resist taking a portrait of their dog “Tigger”. She was a real bundle of energy (like her namesake), but I managed to get her still enough to get a few shots.

"Tigger" by Gale Photography
The dark background (a hedge in shadow) makes it look as if she’s been lit by flash, but it’s a natural light image. Her alert expression is due to the fact she was being offered a treat to encourage her to sit still.
As I said, it was a fun shoot (with lots of laughter), and they loved the images.
If you would like to experience a shoot with Gale Photography for yourself just get in touch to arrange the date!
Cheers,
Derek
by Derek Gale
Looks like you all had a great time Derek! Love the moody shot of the girl.