The Dunnet Family, Lunderston Bay, Scotland

There's nothing I love more than watching a family have fun together in the great outdoors. On this particular occasion, the forecast was grey and damp, but low and behold, somewhere beyond the clouds there was a big orange thing lurking and trying to break through. The resulting light was spectacular as I watched dad leap across the water to some rocks, closely followed by mum and their three children.

Lunderston Bay is one of my favourite locations to capture a family. There are so many textures spread across a relatively small area. Everything from beaches and rocks to long grasses and tree bark. Perfect.

Here is a small selection of images I captured on what was an amazing day. Enjoy!

Fancy a Lifestyle Family Shoot just like this one? Find out more here.

The chase was most definitely on

The best types of family shoots are those where there's no pre-conceived ideas of having to stand still, face the camera and say 'cheese'!!! I've come to hate that word very much. Because let's face it, pretty much everyone (who isn't a photographer) has more or less that expectation of a photo shoot, right?

Well not where I'm concerned. Kids are kids. They rarely sit still if asked, never smile when you want them to and always want to do whatever the hell they like! Trust me, I have three little rascals of my own, I should know.

When it came to the McDougall Family, the grown ups told me they didn't want to be in the photos and so I just had the kids to concentrate on. Cara and Jaimie were absolutely fabulous with Cara wanting to pose for the camera every time I pointed it at her. Meanwhile Jaimie just wanted to run and run and run and run some more. But he absolutely loved his big sister.

Lunderston Bay, near Inverkip, deep in the woods was where we chose to explore and err...get very very muddy! Here is a small selection of what we got up to.