By ANDREA WHELAN – a London Family Photographer on the Kent Coast

Mother holding child looking out to sea at Botany Bay. On Shoot with Andrea Whelan.

We’ve shot in several London locations, this time they wanted something different

Her curls were moving faster than she was. Small pink dress, bare feet, completely unbothered by the fact that her mum was chasing her down the sand and her dad was laughing somewhere behind. The light was doing that thing it does at Botany Bay in the last hour, warm and low and very forgiving, and for a moment nobody was thinking about the camera at all.

Which is always the moment I’m waiting for.

This family live in London. We’ve done a lot of shoots together in Greenwich Park, Oxleas Woods and Canary Wharf. This time they wanted something different. A coastal escape. A bit of space and salt air and a proper sense of somewhere. So we drove down to the Kent coast, and Botany Bay delivered, as it tends to.

Sunset Family Photography on the Kent Coast

A coastal escape

London Family Photographer

Why Botany Bay

If you haven’t been, it’s worth the trip. Chalk cliffs that glow pink at sunset, wide stretches of pale sand, tidal pools when the timing’s right, and those famous chalk stacks standing out in the water like something from a painting. It’s on the Thanet coast, just past Broadstairs, and it feels a world away from London even though it’s a straightforward drive from the city.

What it does for photography is a little bit magic. The sand is soft and light, so it catches the last of the sun and throws it back up at everyone. The cliffs give you scale. The sea gives you sound and movement. And because it’s a proper stretch of beach rather than a neat little cove, there’s room for kids to run, which is almost always the right answer.

The shoot itself

We started up near the cliffs, the three of them walking hand in hand, and honestly the whole session had that quality to it. Unhurried. Playful when it wanted to be playful, quiet when it wanted to be quiet.
Their daughter set the pace, as small children always do, and I followed. That’s how I work. I don’t line families up and tell them where to put their hands. I watch, and I wait, and I trust that the real moments will come if you make the space for them. They always do.

The waves were the main event for a while. She wanted to chase them, then she wanted to be chased by them, then she wanted her mum and dad to get their feet wet too, which they did without hesitation. There’s something about being barefoot in the sea that levels a family out. The parents stopped performing for the camera (they hadn’t been, really, but you can always feel the last bit of stiffness go) and it all became about her and the water.

That one is one of my favourites from the whole session. The foam catching the light, the two of them just being together in it. This is the kind of frame I’m really talking about when I say lifestyle meets editorial. It’s a real moment, not a pose, but the composition and the light make it feel like something more.

The quiet moments

Not everything at Botany Bay is running-and-laughing. Some of it is a lot softer than that.

At one point she needed a feed, and her mum just sat down on the sand and fed her, and I kept photographing, because why wouldn’t I. This is one of those frames that families don’t always think to ask for. But a few years from now, when she’s grown out of it and everything has changed, this is the one that’s going to stop her mum in her tracks. I’m very glad we have it.

And then there are the in-between moments, the ones where nobody is doing anything in particular. Just a mother holding her daughter, looking out at the water. The sky was doing something beautiful above them. We stood there for a bit.

Botany Bay family photography

Name: Andrea Whelan Photography
Price range: $$$

because staying in London is not compulsory

The parents, too

One of the things I try to do on a family session is make sure the parents end up in frame together. Not just as two people standing next to their child, but as each other. Because they were a couple before there was a family, and they will be long after the kids have grown up and moved out, and those frames matter.

If you’re thinking about Botany Bay

A few practical things, because people ask.
Sunset is the time. The light an hour or so before it dips is the best hour of the day down there, and the crowds thin out as the day winds down. Summer evenings are long and golden, but I’ve shot there in autumn too and the skies are often more dramatic.

Check the tide. This matters more than you’d think. At low tide you get proper sand and access to the tidal pools, which is wonderful with small children. At high tide the beach shrinks considerably and you’re pushed up towards the cliffs, which has its own drama but gives you less room to roam.

Parking is at Kingsgate, at the top of the cliffs, and there’s a path down to the beach. It’s not a long walk but if you’re carrying a small person or a bag of outfit changes, factor it in.

Wear things you don’t mind getting wet. Always.

Travelling for a family shoot

Most of my sessions are in London, and most families are very happy to stay in London. There are beautiful parks and river paths and corners of the city that mean something to them, and that’s often exactly where we should be.

But every so often a family wants something different. A place that feels like a proper day out. Somewhere they can make a small trip of it, stop for fish and chips afterwards, let the kids fall asleep in the car on the way home. And when that’s what you want, a destination session is a lovely thing.

I’m based in Greenwich and I photograph families across London, but I’m very happy to travel, whether that’s to the Kent coast, a grandparent’s garden somewhere in the Home Counties, or a holiday cottage you’ve all escaped to for the weekend.

If you’re thinking about a family shoot somewhere that matters to you, do get in touch. I’d love to hear where.