Child's Play

Peter Fenech visits Nicola Webster to learn about her approach to child and family portraiture and the importance of having fun

- Peter Fenech

Nicola Webster

Nicola is a Dublin-based photographer, specialising in both family portrait and wedding photography. She has been shooting professionally for over 20 years.

Nicola describes her portrait style as “classic, timeless and natural” and has been commended many times by the Irish Professional Photographers and Videographers Awards (IPPVA). Find out more about Nicola on her website: www.nicolawebster.com Instagram: @websterphotos

At Digital Photographer, we receive plenty of child and family portraits. Many are lovely images, but a large proportion lack a certain energy. When photographing people, there has to be a strong engagement between the subject and the viewer, never more so than when the subject is a child.

This missing piece is often due to the photographer having overlooked some of the main rules of portraiture – an oversight perhaps caused by the creator having a close emotional connection with the subject, especially if it’s their own children. It is important to remember that most viewers won’t have that connection, meaning you have to work harder as a photographer to tell the subject’s story.

Keen to explore this challenging genre, I have arranged to spend the day with Dublin-based portrait and wedding pro Nicola Webster. It’s a fine day in Raheny, a short train ride north from Dublin’s Connolly Station, and the crisp winter sun streams through the skylight in Nicola’s cosy studio. We have some time before our shoot begins, so we start by having a chat about all things photography over a superb coffee from a nearby cafe.

“I was always creative and loved drawing and painting,” says Nicola.