Child Led Nature Play For Candid Photos

Raising my children here in the Dandenong Ranges outside Melbourne some of my favorite memories with them have been out in nature. We have done semi-structured nature play through playgroup, farm school and our local Landcare nature playgroup. We also regularly do our own nature activities as a family. My kids adore splashing in creeks, playing in the mud, climbing trees and logs, and going on bug or scavenger hunts. There is just something so magical about kids in nature but for many families getting outdoors all together like this doesn’t happen as often as we would like. For that reason I try to incorporate child led nature play into my photoshoots whenever possible.

At this session when I first met the Coombe cousins at their cars I told them we were going on a fun forest adventure. They immediately got excited and asked if it was a bear hunt. When we got to our first location the two eldest immediately picked up sticks and of course the instinctive reaction was to tell them to put them down. I assured the adults with them we could embrace their energy and inquisitiveness and that it was great if they wanted to explore. I had the boys use their sticks like ninjas and they loved it and we got gorgeous candid photos. They then ran up and down the steps and were then puffed enough to allow me to get a few semi-posed shots of the group together. As the session went on we examined bugs, jumped up and down and played peekaboo. When the youngest of the boys, aged 2, was being tricky I asked what he was interested in. I was told he loved dinosaurs so his nana and I took him on a dino hunt amongst the trees. The two oldest then started getting competitive balancing on logs and we finished up by playing ring-a-rosie in the long grass around the baby.

This was such a great shoot full of energy and candid moments and with zero tears or meltdowns which is why I love just letting children play in nature and embrace it when a session goes in that direction.

I ACKNOWLEDGE THE BUNURONG AND WURUNDJERI PEOPLE WHO ARE THE TRADITIONAL OWNERS OF THE LAND ON WHICH I PHOTOGRAPH.
I PAY MY RESPECTS TO THEIR ELDERS; PAST, PRESENT AND EMERGING.