Oare Gunpowder Works Winter Lifestyle Portrait Session with Lois

I always love visiting the old gunpowder works at Oare near Faversham as it's a real hidden gem and a lovely little country park, especially on a nice day. Thankfully we were blessed with some warm weather and some sunshine too when Lois, Kerry and I headed there for a lifestyle portrait session. Lois, our model for the afternoon, was quite new to being photographed (she's a freelance personal trainer by trade) so was glad of a bit of direction as she rocked a bit of an autumnal theme amongst the woodland and derelict buildings at the country park. Kerry took on two roles today - both as a fantastic make up artist and as my lighting assistant which really enabled me to make the most of the natural light and give Lois a bit of extra pop, too!

I had the chance to remind myself of the layout of the park a few weeks beforehand, to save having to work out suitable locations to use. This is quite useful for new locations as well as old, as you will always spot something different and get new ideas. This was especially today important as I had a little surprise lined up for the session - a smokebomb!

These are great fun to use, but as you can imagine quite unpredictable! It only take a bit of wind to make the smoke go somewhere you don't want it to, which is what we had to deal with. Thankfully we got a few good photos with the smoke swirling behind Lois before we moved on.

We ended up by the side of a lake back near the car park for the final photos, with the sun streaming in behind Lois is was a lovely backdrop, and I got a few more natural photos to finish on. A great day and a lovely wintery portrait session!  If you'd like your own lifestyle type session, check out my portrait photography page for more info, or drop me a message to check my availability - I'd love to hear from you!