Cluedo – A Family Photo Shoot - and Episode 214 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

I was once asked by a business client if I could do a photo shoot of her with her husband and 2 kids. "Could you make us look like a normal family?" she said with a desperate plea in her voice. There were hints to a background of the wider clan all being more traditional and respectable, while her corner were seen as the black sheep. The shoot wasn't really for themselves, but to give the right impression to other people.

By comparison, when Jean came to see me at Spring Fling to talk about a family photo shoot, a traditional approach was the last thing she wanted.

Although her children are now adults, they had all grown up as avid board game players, with Cluedo being a particular favourite. Jean said she loved my approach to creating cinematic and theatrical narrative photography and before I knew it we were talking about how we might stage a Cluedo themed shoot, with each member of the family playing a different character, along with accompanying outfits, props and location.

This is what I live for!

Do a quick Google search on Family Photo Shoots and you quickly discover there are 3 styles that dominate the results – the traditional studio, the white-backdrop, and the outdoor "lifestyle".

The traditional family photo shoot was essentially like your school photo shoot – a plain or textured backcloth (often blue or brown) with standard studio lighting. Everything looked a bit formal, but participants might be encouraged to try smiling for the camera – the degree of success of creating a convincing smile rather than a grimace would depend on the people skills of the photographer.

Solid, dependable, high-street photographers with a section at the back of the shop all set up and ready to go. Not exactly imaginative, but you know what you’re going to get.

In the 1990s a radical new approach hit the high street, and shopping malls, everywhere: a completely white background where everyone was encouraged to take off their shoes and sit, or even roll on the floor. At least one parent might look embarrassed, but it was more than made up for by laughing children clambering over them.

With borderless canvas prints being favoured over traditional framed and mounted prints, these looked fresh and modern.

A decade or 2 later, when you couldn’t visit someone’s house without seeing yet another white-backdrop family photo all but identical to your own, the outdoor "lifestyle" shoot emerged.

Some might have the family sitting in a spring meadow or holding hands running along the beach. But for most it seems the dominant form has now become matching outfits – everyone wearing white shirts and blue jeans, or a tidy brown and beige combo, usually standing under a tree.

Unfortunately, because these 3 styles of photography are so dominant, most people don't appear to realise a family photo could be so much more fun and creative.

For Jean and her family, making the costumes, sourcing the props, and rearranging the dining room were all part of the fun and experience.

Jean decided to be Miss Scarlet, while her daughters were Reverend Green and Mrs White. Her son was Colonel Mustard and his partner was Professor Plum.

I guess that probably makes the viewer Mrs Peacock...

We did a series of images – from them playing the game at the table, through to them gathered around a body in a trunk, and then various individual and combination shots.

As well as ending up with a completely unique set of photos that they will never have to worry about seeing cookie-cutter versions of on their neighbour's walls, the memories of the experience will be with them forever.

And I daresay their descendents will have a different impression of them than we do when we look at old photos of our great grandparents.

Whether it's Game of Thrones, Peaky Blinders, Steampunk or Star Trek – group photos of families or friends can be so much more exciting than standing in a row, looking faintly uncomfortable.

Let's get together for a no-obligation coffee to explore ideas.

If you're interested, I discuss this photo shoot in Episode 214 of my podcast, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"

And if you decide to click through and watch it directly on YouTube (rather than here on the blog), then you can watch the Live Chat Replay and see the comments people are writing in real time as the podcast progresses.

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2:02 - Welcome, what's coming up, greetings and comments
5:37 - Smug Points Leaderboard update
7:08 - A brief history of family photography styles - from the formal, to the white sheet, to the outdoor "lifestyle"
14:13 - An introduction to the Cluedo themed family photo shoot
16:26 - Technical interlude as I try to recover a lost screen...
18:48 - The main photo
27:05 - Behind-the-scenes photos
43:43 - More images from the set
51:01 - What they looked like in Black and White
56:45 - Feedback on Viji's photo of buildings reflected in a mirror
1:09:47 - Coming up next week - The Autumn/Fall Photo Challenge
1:11:46 - End

Missing the Legend

I met Pat through blogging around 18 years ago, give or take. She was already well into her 70s and writing her memoirs, which she was posting episodically.

These days our content is spoon-fed to us via the algorithms that monitor how long we look at or hover over a post and then give us what they think we want based on our activity. Unfortunately this means we rarely stumble across anything new or challenging.

But back in the days when dinosaurs walked the Internet (who would have thought we could become nostalgic for a time still in the 2000s, but before the dominance of FB), we had to seek out stuff that might interest us.

The Internet seemed to be a place of discovery rather than a force-fed echo-chamber. And while we were busy creating our own content, we followed links, left comments and sometimes people would comment back.

Long term friendships were formed with people we might never have met in the real world because of geographical, or even social, political, and cultural separation. And yet, we would find like-minded spirits that reminded us we are all human underneath, whatever our differences.

I doubt if these same friendships could have occurred today precisely because the algorithms like to keep us in our separate social, political and cultural groups.

But I found Pat, or she found me, via a series of steps through other blogs populated with sometimes strange, sometimes down-to-earth, and sometimes just plain bonkers people who blogged as made up characters.

About 3 years later, I was on a road trip with my son, heading down to Devon to visit family, and took the opportunity to detour via Minehead and meet up with Pat. I documented it in the blog post, Meeting a Legend

"While waiting for Pat outside Mr Micawber’s café in Minehead, we spotted her from a wee way off. As she approached - elegant, attractive and with a dazzling smile - I became distinctly aware of my own travel-worn state – creased shirt, untrimmed jowls and in desperate need of a shower. Mr Odorous Crumpled at your service, Ma’am..."

We'd only planned on having a coffee and a wee chat, but it extended to, and beyond, lunch. Despite this being the first time we had met in person, if felt far more like meeting up with a long lost friend.

I think one of the key differences between blogging and other forms of social media, is that there is time to explore thoughts, feelings, emotions and experiences. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and the like are all designed to scroll through quickly, producing endless, quick dopamine hits. As such, there is no time to get to know anyone in depth, so our connections remain shallow.

For those we already know in the real world, those platforms are a great way to keep the relationships alive with constant "postcards of information", until the next time you meet and properly bond again. But it's practically impossible to do this with new connections. We "friend" easily, and "unfriend" even more easily. If someone disagrees with our point of view on almost anything, then it's easier to remove them from our feed. Why waste time trying to keep the relationship alive with someone we barely know?

But with bloggers, that sharing of fears, hopes and desires, loves, laughs and losses, we build a much deeper connection. It doesn't matter if they might vote or worship in a different way - we connect to them as people first - and as such the differences become a place of curiosity and learning.

3 years after that first meeting, my son and I planned another road trip down south, and I knew I would want to meet up with Pat again, only this time we would do a photo shoot.

In the intervening years, I had set up as a portrait photographer and knowing Pat had been a model earlier in her life was excuse enough.

We bounced ideas back and forth and eventually decided we would attempt 2 different shoots - one of her in a Hollywood Style, Marlene Dietrich pose, while the other would be making a nod towards Annigoni's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II - see Photographing a Legend

It was huge fun. Pat had gone to great lengths to find reference images and create outfits.

Over the next decade or so, every time I did a trip down to Devon, making a detour to visit Pat was always on the agenda. Conversations never dried up, and partings were always tinged with a little sadness.

In between times, blogging for many of us had become sporadic at best, but the other social media sites allowed us to stay in contact - frequently sharing, commenting, and messaging.

The last time I saw Pat in person was 2 years ago when we were down at my niece's wedding. This time Pat was delighted to finally get to meet my wife and daughter.

Back when Covid first hit the UK and we were all plunged into Lockdown, I began my live weekly video podcast, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres", which at the time of writing has now been going for 4½ years.

Despite having no interest in taking photos herself, Pat would still tune in and join in the live chat almost every week, and was seen by all as a part of this community.

A few months ago, she told me she would no longer be able to be involved due to failing health and a need to prioritise her energies. And yet she would still periodically stick her head round the door and say hello.

Following the death of my brother at the end of last year, my son and I started talking of another road trip down south so he could meet up with family, and of course, take in another visit to Pat.

Pat's sense of hospitality meant that if you turned up for lunch, she would provide a spread large enough to feed an entire cricket team. This too had left a lasting impression on a young lad...

The initial plan had been to go in late spring, but work commitments meant it got bumped to autumn, and then more timing difficulties led to it getting postponed until next year.

With great sadness I found out yesterday that Pat has passed away. The chance to see her at least one last time has vanished.

For nearly 2 decades, Pat has been a warm and uplifting part of my life, and she will be sorely missed.

My heart goes out to her family.