Family · Princess Grand Jamaica · Hanover
A family session at
Princess Grand Jamaica.
A family of five came to Princess Grand Jamaica for the week. Two parents, three girls, and a resort in Hanover that gives a family session plenty to work with. The lawns, the lobby, the rock breakwater, the boardwalk, and a long stretch of quiet white sand. This is what the afternoon looked like.
The full family
Five people, one frame.
Landing five people in the same frame at the same moment takes a little work. The two younger girls move fast. The answer is to keep the session moving and take the portraits while the light holds and everyone is still in good form.
We started up on the limestone at the edge of the property, where the sea broke behind them as the shutter went. Then a low stone wall where everyone could sit and settle. Then the rock breakwater, with the resort and the water behind. Then the lawn in front of the lobby for a clean, simple group portrait.
Princess Grand Jamaica gives a family session more than a beach. The lawns, the lobby, the rocks, and the boardwalk all sit within a short walk of each other.
The two of them
A moment for the parents.
I always pull the parents aside for a few frames on their own. It is the photograph they rarely think to ask for and the one that tends to matter later. He leaned in and kissed her forehead under the palms. Then they stood together on the sand. Quiet, unposed, finished in a couple of minutes.
The three sisters
Let them run.
The strongest frames of the girls came once I stopped directing and let them go. They ran across the sand toward me. Arms went up. The overwater bungalows sat on the water behind them. These are the photographs that look like nobody was directing anything, because nobody was.
Mother and daughters
The girls with their mother.
We took the three girls with their mother as the light softened on the beach. The youngest tucked in close against her. Then the two younger girls walked the beach path with her, hand in hand, with the resort behind them.
Father and daughters
And with their father.
Their father stood with all three on the sand. Then he knelt down and two of the girls leaned in to kiss his cheeks at the same time. He was already grinning before they reached him.
Around the resort
Inside the lobby.
Princess Grand Jamaica has interior spaces that photograph as well as the beach does. We used the curved lounge by the window, with the sea showing through behind them, and the wide staircase under the gold chandelier. Having indoor options on the same property matters in Hanover, where an afternoon sky can turn quickly.
On the move
Walking, and not standing still.
The frames I keep coming back to are the ones where the family is moving. They held hands across the wooden boardwalk. They walked the palm lined path back toward the beach.
At one point the parents broke into a spin while the girls carried on ahead. None of it was planned. All of it was theirs.
Booking a session here
Planning a family session in Jamaica.
As a family photographer in Jamaica with over twenty years on the island, I know how the light moves across a property like Princess Grand Jamaica through the afternoon, and how to sequence a session so each location gets used while the light is right. That planning starts long before the camera comes out.
I photograph families across the island, at Half Moon, Round Hill, Tryall Club, Rose Hall, Rockhouse, and Pimento Hill House, as well as private villas and resorts like Princess Grand Jamaica in Hanover. If your family is planning a family photography session in Jamaica, get in touch and we can talk through what the afternoon would look like for your group.