Family · Ocean Coral Spring · Jamaica
Danielle and family at
Ocean Coral Spring, Jamaica.
Three generations, one week in Jamaica. Danielle came to Ocean Coral Spring on the north coast with her parents, her brother and his wife, and their young son. As a family photographer in Jamaica I work with groups like this regularly, and sessions where a young child is present alongside grandparents always produce the most memorable frames. This is what the afternoon looked like.
The full family
Everyone together on the beach.
Ocean Coral Spring sits on a long stretch of quiet north coast beach with the hotel's modern architecture rising behind it. The contrast between the clean white buildings and the open Caribbean gives group portraits from this property a distinct quality. There is a lot of sky and sea to work with, and the beach is wide enough to give a family of six real room to move.
We started on the beach with the full group. The walking shot came after the formal portrait and it is always the one that feels most alive. Six people across the sand, the turquoise water stretching behind them, the little one held between grandparents in the middle.
The smaller groups
The stories within the group.
One of the things I always make time for in a family photography session in Jamaica is breaking the full group into its smaller units. The young family of three at the water's edge is a different photograph from the six person portrait. The mother and daughter standing on the sand looking at each other is different again. Danielle with her brother and their mother is a frame that belongs to just the three of them.
These are the frames that individual family members return to most. Not the group portrait but the one that is just them.
The photographs that families return to most are rarely the group portraits. They are the quiet ones between two people who love each other, on a beach, with nothing else requiring their attention.
Grandparents and grandson
The photographs they did not plan for.
Nobody asks specifically for a grandparent and grandchild portrait. It is not usually on the list when a family books a photography session in Jamaica. But it is almost always the set of frames that means the most to the whole family when they see the final images. The unscripted moments between a grandparent and a small child on a beach are irreplaceable.
The grandfather walked the boy along the waterline. The grandmother held him close, kissed him, let him kiss her back. These frames happened within a few minutes of each other and nobody was directing anything.
The fishing boat
The frame that only Jamaica gives you.
At the far end of the beach a local fishing boat sat pulled up on the sand. The golden hour light was arriving. Six people on the side of a wooden boat, the whole coast behind them going warm. This is not a photograph you can make at a resort pool or on a manicured lawn. It is specific to this stretch of Jamaican coastline at this time of day, and it is the kind of image that makes a family photography session in Jamaica different from anywhere else.
The hotel grounds
The architecture as backdrop.
Ocean Coral Spring has a contemporary design with a reflective pool at the entrance that gives portrait photographs from this spot an unusual depth. The whole hotel facade reflects in the water below the family. It is a location specific to this property and unlike anything available at other resorts on the north coast of Jamaica.
Booking a session here
What to know about Ocean Coral Spring.
Ocean Coral Spring sits on the north coast of Trelawny Jamaica . As a family photographer in Jamaica with over twenty years experience working across the island, I photograph at resorts and private properties the full length of the north coast. The combination of the open beach, the hotel architecture, the local fishing village at the far end of the property, and the reflective pool at the entrance gives a family photography session here more location variety than most resorts can offer.
If you are planning a family photography session in Jamaica at Ocean Coral Spring or anywhere else on the island, get in touch and we can talk through what the afternoon would look like for your group. I photograph families at resorts and private villas across Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, Runaway Bay, Negril, and the full north coast.