Preston photographer captures ups and downs of homeschooling

Si Miller, owner of Si Miller Photography has been capturing photos of his children: Elsie, who is five-years-old, and Arthur, who turned seven this week.

He was inspired to start the project by fellow photographers who were taking similar photos in lockdown.

“Obviously I take photos of the kids all the time,” Si said, “I did think ‘I should do something with this’, then I saw other photographers doing mini projects.

“When they announced a lockdown at Christmas I did a couple of posts on my Instagram and thought this could be a good thing to document.”

The photos show the fun, adventures and chaos associated with lockdown life but they also show the mundane and inevitable boredom.

“My wife sometimes says ‘you should include that one because they’re smiling’,” Si said, “But my point of being a photographer is that I want to show everything, including the mundane.

“There were some days where the kids were just watching telly and I captured them sitting there watching. We go for a lot of walks because that’s the only thing you can really do!”

Originally a commercial photographer, Si became interested in wedding photography and it is now his main source of income.

“I’m doing bits and pieces but my main line of work has stopped,” he said.

“After a few days I thought I’d carry on doing this mini project.”

Si says that the industry has had to be creative to find new sources of income due to restrictions on weddings.

“I had the majority of my weddings postponed and I’ve still got weddings being postponed,” he said.

“One couple postponed their wedding from last year until this year and now they have postponed until next year because they don’t want that uncertainty.

“I am totally with them- obviously when you plan your wedding it’s such a difficult time and now you have to worry about the pandemic as well.”

Si is branching out into family photography to fill the gap left by weddings and he has started a second job.

Boris Johnson announced this week (February 22) that weddings could go ahead with no restrictions from June 21.

“As soon as weddings weren’t happening it was a very uncertain time,” Si said, “Because of the uncertainty I’ve got a second job and I started this month.

“Now I’m classed as a critical worker so the kids are going back to school in a couple of days.”

The Preston dad says he has had positive feedback and he plans to continue the project.

“I’ve had quite a good response from fellow mums and dads from my kids’ class. A lot of them have said it’s great to see that everyone’s in the same boat,” he said.

The photographer’s family is spread across the UK and he says that the photos have helped them to keep in touch.

“It has been nice for the grandparents to see the posts each day and have that interaction,” Si said.

His son, Arthur, has also taken an interest in the photos and enjoys looking through them.You can see more of Si Miller’s photo series and find out more about the photographer at this website.