Combining family holiday with photography: Done

ukaskew

ukaskew

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I’ve seen quite a few threads on this subject over the past few years with varying responses everywhere between completely forgoing photography to ignoring/annoying the family in pursuit of photos!

I’ve just returned from a few days in New York City with my wife and 3 year old son so thought I’d throw in my experience. We love NYC in February (it’s so quiet and usually dry despite the cold) and this would be our first long haul with our son, judging by the complete lack of toddlers at the airport or out and about in the city it’s not exactly a common thing to do in winter.

New York Feb 2018 by Chris Harrison, on Flickr

I had zero expectations photographically and left most of my gear at home. I had a Sony a7RII, 55mm 1.8 and 24-240mm, with a tiny Olympus E-PL8 and kit lens left at the hotel in case an opportunity to pop out at night presented itself (I love Olympus Live Comp). All fit comfortably into a little Domke FX-5B with my wallet and phone. No support as usual, I’ve always used walls or any other firm surface for long exposure stuff.

Anyhow, far from finding it to be a frustrating experience I found it incredibly rewarding. Firstly, the city is an entirely different place when you have a 3 year old with you. So many locals spoke to us, the usual ‘head down’ subway journeys turned into lengthy chats with commuters (one even shared his holiday photos with me on his phone). The contrast with pre-child trips was incredible, without any prompting or us asking for anything people really went out of their way to help or include our son in things.

In terms of photography, I just kept my camera over my shoulder and shot whenever an opportunity cropped up. Yes, I missed loads (including a glorious sunset whilst we were in Brooklyn as my son was on the carousel) but I also gained loads by including him in the frame. More often than not I’d just quietly take a step back when he was looking at things and shoot away without him knowing and I got some really nice shots that way.

New York Feb 2018 by Chris Harrison, on Flickr

New York Feb 2018 by Chris Harrison, on Flickr

As an example of the slightly more conventional shots possible, this was probably less than two minutes in total as my son sat (briefly) next to me to eat some ice cream. The camera was rested on a fence post and I managed three attempts before needing to move on.

New York Feb 2018 by Chris Harrison, on Flickr

As a bit of marital compromise we split a couple of evenings once he’d gone to sleep (usually around 8pm). I headed out one evening to explore and take photos alone, and my wife headed out one evening for some retail therapy. Win win! Similarly at Top of the Rock, we spent most of our time together as a family, but then spent 5 minutes each alone to do as we pleased whilst the other was with the little one.

New York Feb 2018 by Chris Harrison, on Flickr

Overall a very positive experience both personally and photographically. Evening out alone aside, I probably spent less than 20 minutes solely on photography in 4 days but still came home with a load of stuff I’m really happy with. Did I miss loads? Yes. Did I gain loads seeing the city through the eyes of a 3 year old? Definitely.

New York Feb 2018 by Chris Harrison, on Flickr
 
Thanks for posting these, they're a lovely record of the city and your holiday.

I'm especially interested as I'm going in August with my wife and 8 year old daughter, and other than a few days in London a few years back, it'll be the first holiday in a big city with a child. Getting the balance right between getting some nice photographs without interfering with everyone else's enjoyment of the holiday can be tricky (as is getting the right balance between too much gear and just enough to get some decent snaps), but it looks like you managed!
 
Great shots and bringing back some fabulous memories of our family holiday back in August

Looks like it was a little cooler when you were there.

It was a little too muggy in August but what an amazing place.
 
viewfromthenorth said:
other than a few days in London a few years back, it'll be the first holiday in a big city with a child.
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We did this with Henry last summer just to be sure he took to a big noisy city before booking New York, bit different to country life! Really glad we did as I would have been nervous otherwise, NYC can be overwhelming.
 
Sounds like you had a great time.
I wouldn't dream of such a short trip to the US though personally, though it sounds like you made the most of it.
I haven't done NYC with kids, but we did go years ago in equally cold November.
On holiday I try to take photos of the kids in the location, but now they are older, they are a bit more conscious of being photographed. You have managed to get a good combination of a pleasing style while documenting a family trip.
Really nicely done.
 
Thanks for sharing these. This is exactly the reason why we should take cameras on holiday, you've got some brilliant shots that will last a lifetime. Fighting the urge to not let the "photography" dominate the trip is one that I feel I'm finally getting the hang of, and the improvement in the photos is ironically noticeable too. You've clearly struck the balance well.
 
I’ve always combined photography and family holidays. I developed an interest in photography right about the time my daughter was born and they went hand in hand. My other love is travel and for the last 11 years, most of my photography has been travel photography. 35 countries and counting, and if it wasn’t for travel, I don’t think my photography would have survived.

It is an interesting dynamic, travelling with kids. The important thing is to try and do things for everybody and the others go along and learn to enjoy it.

I’m lucky that my wife is very supportive (in this regard; can’t really say the same for everything else ) and will patiently wait for me to finish crawling on the ground to get a better angle. She tends to go to bed by 10 and I try to do some night photography after they’re asleep.

I’ve become used to shooting by hand. No tripods for me as it’s very difficult to set up and take shots with the family in tow. Also very cumbersome to carry around when traipsing around a foreign city. The downside of the whole thing is that I’m always carrying about 8Kg of equipment on my back wherever we go. It gets tiring sometimes and I long to be able to go out without the backpack but I’m worried I’ll miss out on some fabulous photo op.

All of this means that I have wonderful photos of my daughter and wife in lovely locations. Not many of me though, as the official photographer can’t be in the photo and no tripod to help. With my daughter now growing up, I manage to get into a few more as she loves to handle Daddy’s big camera.
 
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ukaskew said:
I’ve seen quite a few threads on this subject over the past few years with varying responses everywhere between completely forgoing photography to ignoring/annoying the family in pursuit of photos!

I’ve just returned from a few days in New York City with my wife and 3 year old son so thought I’d throw in my experience. We love NYC in February (it’s so quiet and usually dry despite the cold) and this would be our first long haul with our son, judging by the complete lack of toddlers at the airport or out and about in the city it’s not exactly a common thing to do in winter.
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Some nice images in there Chris.

We took my son to NY when he was about 11, he still states it was the best holiday he's ever had (he's 28 now), even though we took him to the parks in Florida the following year (we returned 2 days before 9/11) and a few other places. It certainly has a magic about it. Great to see some of those images, it's clear that you did put some thought into them even though you didn't have much time.
 
ABTog said:
I wouldn't dream of such a short trip to the US though personally, though it sounds like you made the most of it.
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Only just over 13 hours of flying in total so not to bad for a 5 day trip, the flight home was overnight too so we all slept.

4-5 days has always been fine for us, usually out and about by 7am and often didn't get back in until 7-8pm, so pretty exhausted after 4 days of that!

This time we managed:

Top of the Rock
One World Trade Observatory
Natural History Museum
USS Intrepid
Staten Island Ferry
South Street Seaport
Ferry trip up East River
Loads of Central Park
The High Line
Brooklyn Bridge Park

...and loads of general neighbourhood wandering. Not bad with a 3 year old!
 
Said it in other threads but just in case anyone is about to fly off out that way in the next few days the first and most important thing to pack is a pair of very comfy trainers

Trust me, you will be on your feet a serious amount of hours when you visit New York
 
tonybassplayer said:
Said it in other threads but just in case anyone is about to fly off out that way in the next few days the first and most important thing to pack is a pair of very comfy trainers

Trust me, you will be on your feet a serious amount of hours when you visit New York
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According to my GPS we walked 29 miles in 4 days, and this time we caught the subway loads more than usual due to our son being with us, probably covered double that in previous years.
 
Love the shots you've posted. Just goes to show you don't need to devote so much of your holiday time having a viewfinder stuck to your face to get some good images. I need to do this more.
 
Daniel_Paul said:
Just goes to show you don't need to devote so much of your holiday time having a viewfinder stuck to your face to get some good images.
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So true but it's pretty hard to stop taking pictures in New York :-)
 
tonybassplayer said:
So true but it's pretty hard to stop taking pictures in New York :)
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This is true also. I think I must have taken a good thousand when I was there with the wife.
 
Wow, some really great images there. Went to NY last March (just the 2 of us) but keen to take the kids there sometime.

Loved the 2nd pic in of your wife and son looking out the window.
 
Great pictures and a nice write up.

First nyc visit with my 9 yr old I only took a compact - got some snaps but nothing special.
Second time she was 12 and I took my m43 kit which means you’re not burdened down.
I never spend more than a couple of minutes on a picture when I’m with the family but you can still get a bit arty and capture some great family memories. I’ve never ventured out solo on family holidays either that’s not why we are there.
I’m so glad I’ve had decent cameras while my kid is growing up - I know it’s a cliche but they do grow up fast!
 
For me there are two types of holiday, a relaxing holiday and as you have just had an experience,
For the relaxing holiday I would take what I call a snapshot camera, For an experience holiday with your young son it is only right that you take photos to show him later on.

Pete
 
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