Some clients you film once. Others, you get to watch grow literally.

A few years after I filmed Ned & Jazzy’s wedding at Villa del Balbianello, Jazzy called me again. This time it wasn’t a wedding it was a family trip. She and Ned came back to Lake Como with Ned’s parents and brother in tow, and their two kids, born since I’d last seen them.

We spent the day walking Bellagio’s narrow lakeside streets with their four-year-old, doing all the properly touristy things that also happen to be the best things to do in one of the most beautiful towns on the lake: wandering the alleys, stopping for gelato, taking in the view across the water. Simple stuff, but it’s exactly the kind of day that makes for a genuinely moving family film no ceremony, no schedule, just a family enjoying a place that clearly means something to them.

Later, we headed back to the hotel to collect their youngest barely a year old at the time and put together a full family shoot, photo and video both, with everyone together: Ned, Jazzy, the kids, and Ned’s parents and brother. It was a long day of delivering both formats well, but the result was genuinely one of the better family shoots I’ve put together, and the family’s reaction made every bit of the effort worth it.