Family photos in Castle Hill

Castle Hill is where a lot of my families live, and it is where a lot of my sessions happen.

Not always outdoors. A good number of Castle Hill sessions happen at home, and I want to say something about that before I say anything about parks.

At home is not the lesser option

There is a version of family photography where everyone is standing in a field at sunset, looking effortless. That is a lovely photo. It is also not the whole of your family.

At home, your children are where they actually are all day. The lounge room floor. The back step. The dog who will not move out of frame. Your own light coming in your own windows at the time of day you know it best. It photographs like your life, because it is your life, and nobody has to get in a car and hold it together on the way.

It is also the easiest option for a brand new baby, a toddler who needs their own space, a child who takes a while to warm up somewhere unfamiliar, or a day that is raining, forty degrees, or three weeks postpartum.

When we go outdoors

When the weather is right and the children are old enough to enjoy it, we go outside. There are a couple of spots I use in Castle Hill, and one of them is where most of my outdoor sessions here happen.

Castle Hill Heritage Park

Castle Hill Heritage Park, on Heritage Park Drive.

I photograph here more than anywhere else in Castle Hill, and not only because it is minutes from most of my families. It is twenty hectares of rolling hills and remnant Blue Gum forest, with Blue Gums and Blackbutts in it that were here long before the suburb was. It is one of the largest remaining stands of Blue Gum High Forest in the world, which is a strange and lovely thing to have sitting behind the houses.

What that gives you in a photo is height and trees in the same frame. Open ground on the hills, a canopy above it, and paved paths running between the two. Most sessions move from one to the other without anyone feeling like they have been on a hike.

A smiling woman in a dark shirt holds a baby in a cream knit sweater on a stone bench in front of orange autumn trees in Castle Hill.
A smiling baby in a cream knit sweater sits in a wicker chair holding dried flowers with autumn foliage in the background in Castle Hill.
Smiling baby in a knit sweater held by a woman in a dark shirt dress beneath a large tree on an autumn lawn covered in fallen leaves.
A smiling mother sits on a grassy lawn holding her baby's feet as the infant lies in her lap in a sunny Castle Hill Heritage Park.
A smiling woman in a black jacket touches foreheads with a baby in a knit sweater while standing on a sunny green lawn in Castle Hill.
A mother in a black shirt kisses her baby's head while holding the infant in her arms beside lush green foliage at Castle Hill Heritage Park
A mother leans down to kiss her baby, who lies on a cream knit blanket on green grass in a sunny at Castle Hill Heritage Park.
Smiling family of six poses outdoors among green trees, with a young man seated in a red wheelchair and loved ones gathered around him.
Smiling toddler in a navy shirt is lifted by a woman in a denim top beside a large tree trunk in a sunny Castle Hill Heritage Park.
A mother and father lovingly kiss their smiling baby on the cheeks while standing together among tall eucalyptus trees in Castle Hill.
Three smiling men with beards embrace outdoors among tall eucalyptus trees, one seated on a wooden chair between two kneeling friends.
Smiling family of three posing outdoors among tall eucalyptus trees, with a woman and man holding a toddler in a blue outfit in Castle Hill.
Baby in a white long-sleeve dress sits in a round wicker chair with a cushion, surrounded by tall dry grass at Castle Hill Heritage Park.
Six family members of different ages pose closely together outdoors on a patio, with green trees and a sunny park setting behind them.
Smiling woman in a beige cardigan peeks playfully around a large tree trunk at a man in a white shirt in a sunny forest in Castle Hill.

Why this park is personal

I got married here.

I do not usually put that on a website, but it is the honest reason this place is different for me. I know what it is like to stand in that park on a day that matters, with everybody you love standing around you, and to want someone there to catch it. So when I photograph a family here, I am not working a location I found on a list. I am working somewhere I chose for my own life.

It also means I know where the light falls, which side of the hill to use, and which spot photographs best at seven in the evening. That part is just useful.

The history under your feet

A short version, because it is worth knowing where you are standing.

This was the Castle Hill Government Farm, set up in 1801, and in 1804 it was the staging point for the first convict rebellion on Australian soil. There are interpretive signs along the main track, the outline of the old convict barracks, and a dam wall the path crosses. Children old enough to read will find it far more interesting than a park normally is, and it gives a session somewhere to walk to.

What it is actually like to photograph

The hills. Rolling ground is a gift. It lets me put you slightly above or below the camera and layer the background behind you, so the photo has depth rather than a flat wall of green.

The gums. Tall trunks with real texture, and a canopy that breaks the light into patches. In the middle of summer that shade is the difference between a comfortable session and a miserable one, and it means we can start a little earlier in the evening and still get something beautiful.

The paths. Paved, which matters more than people expect. Prams, grandparents, a toddler who insists on walking and then insists on being carried.

The playground and the picnic area. Near the Heritage Park Drive car park, with toilets. If your child needs a reason to arrive somewhere, this is it. It is also the difference between a relaxed session and one where somebody needs the toilet ten minutes in.

The open ground. There are mown patches between the trees where children can properly run. A child running downhill across the grass photographs better than anything I could pose.

A mother in a dark button-up shirt lifts and kisses her smiling baby under autumn trees with golden leaves in a sunlit park in Castle Hill.
A woman in a black shirt sits on a tree branch in a sunny park, smiling and holding a baby in a cream knit sweater in Castle Hill.

What outdoor sessions here are like

More tucked away than Rouse Hill. Rouse Hill is wide and open, all sky and long grass. Heritage Park is mown and shaded, with trees, paths and green rather than a big horizon, which suits families who want texture over a wide view.

They also suit older children. A nine year old who has agreed to this under sufferance does better with somewhere to walk than somewhere to stand. We move, we talk, and the photos happen along the way.

The practical bits

Two steep hills. Worth knowing before you book with a pram or with grandparents. The park is graded easy to medium, and there are two steep sections. We do not have to use them. I plan sessions around the flatter ground near the picnic area and the open hill, and if you tell me someone is not steady on their feet, we stay on the flat.

Parking and meeting point. The car park is on Heritage Park Drive, beside the picnic area and playground, with toilets right there. I will send you the exact meeting spot before the day.

Evenings are busy. Castle Hill is a busy suburb, and the roads around the shops at five o'clock are not where you want to be with three children in the car. I build in meeting time for this. Arriving flustered is not part of the plan.

Townhouses, apartments and small yards. Small outdoor spaces photograph beautifully. A courtyard with one good patch of afternoon sun is enough. You do not need a big garden for a home session, and you certainly do not need a tidy one. I will move the drying rack if it helps.

Grandparents. If they are coming, say so. Home is the easiest option, and at Heritage Park we can stay on the flat near the car park, with the toilets and picnic tables close by.

What a session actually looks like

I arrive, and we have a minute. I have a look around your place or the spot we have chosen, and I find the light.

Then we get going. Play, cuddle, feed the baby, chase the toddler, sit on the floor, read a book. I will guide you into a few places that photograph well, and then I will step back and let the session do its own thing.

I do not expect your children to sit still and smile on command. I spent years as a primary school teacher, which means I have never met a child I could not win over, and it also means I know when to stop trying and let them be.

Every photo from your session is yours. One price, no choosing, no sales pitch at the end.

Sessions I photograph in Castle Hill

Newborn sessions, in your own home, with time for feeds and changes and settling. Family sessions, indoors or out. Maternity and motherhood sessions, at home or somewhere nearby. Fresh 48 sessions happen in hospital, and then we can follow up at home once you are settled.

If you are marking something specific, a birthday, a new sibling, the first day of school, tell me when you book. Those are some of the loveliest sessions I photograph.

If you want to book it

Tell me where in Castle Hill you are, how many of you there are, and whether you would rather stay home or meet me at the Heritage Park. I will take it from there.

Part of my guide - places I take photos in the Hills District