Daisy's Family Shoot
Daisy had a photoshoot scheduled with me yesterday to photograph her family. She wanted a nature setting for the shoot. We had a few locations to select from, but ultimately she chose the arboretum as it was close for her and a location that’s hard to beat in this area. Her goal was to get a nice group family photo as well as segments of her family in different photos. Because of the diversity of landscapes at the arboretum, we were able to get gorgeous nature backdrops with variations in the way they look by simply walking a few steps!
It’s always my goal to get as many photos as I can for my clients. So many times I see ads stating that by the end of the photo session the client may receive 1-5 finished photos. To me that is waaaaaay too few! I like to shoot a variety of ways and then let the client have everything that looks good - no matter the number. The photo shown above was taken with a vertical orientation, but Daisy also received a version of this pose shot horizontally. I hope my clients appreciate the choice they get when the go with me!
As always, kids are the most challenging subjects to work with. While one child may behave like an angel, another may be the complete opposite. When this happens it’s time to really crank the frame rate up and fire off a ton of shots. During this session I literally was holding down the shutter for 5-8 seconds at a time in order to get a useable expression. My clients could hear my shutter firing off like crazy! But that just tells them that getting the best shot is important, and shooting more will give us better options in the end.
I brought two camera bodies and a slew of lenses… but I ended up shooting with just the 85mm 1.4 for the entire shoot. That lens has the ability to just obliterate the background… which I love doing! The only tricky thing is getting subjects in good focus at such a wide aperture. It’s a huge challenge, but if done right the photos look really, really good!
Never let a moment go to waste! Even when we were going from one place to another I’d try to keep my eye on situations when a nice moment may occur. Make sure you’re always ready to shoot!