Fall Color Portraits

Making use of the beautiful colors at a local park with mother and daughter

Bizzell Family Portraits

Family portraits can be difficult to get for anyone, but when you have a special needs adult child, it takes more preparation and careful timing. It has been years since this family have had a portrait including each family member. I was more than happy to come to them and photograph their family.

For this session I was able to set up in the basement. I prepared the backdrop and lights and brought in the dad and other children to be ready before the mom brought in the adult daughter. I stood at the far end of the room away from the family, and used my zoom lens to get up close. I started snapping away with my camera and it was about ten seconds before the daughter realized what was happening and started to shy away. She may only be in a few photos with her family, but that is an accomplishment we could only have hoped for going in to this session. Once the family photos were done, we continued to take individual portraits and combinations of the children and parents. I have added a few composites in the mix as well.

My favorites are included below: 

Wyatt at Six Months - Location Studio Setup

I photographed Wyatt and his parents when he was about one month old last year. Now he is over six months old and sitting on his own. I brought my lights and backdrop with me and set up in a living room space with hardwood floors and a lot of windows. I had a few hiccups with my lighting, but I was able to tweak the settings and pull out some great images. Wyatt sat very well for nearly twenty minutes just watching all the fuss that was going on around him. He needed a few breaks in between his outfit changes, and after a nose-dive into the floor. I moved between sitting and laying down on the floor to be at his level in order to better interact with him. I was able to capture a wide variety of expressions from him with the help of his family, who were all doing their best to get him to smile; so I have to thank them for making my job so much easier.

Below are my favorites from this session:

Family Room Studio Setup for Angela & Hank

I have shared several times about closing my studio and working with whatever space is available to shoot photos. Today was another example of how not having a studio does not reduce the quality of portraits I can make. A studio is nothing more than a space to take pictures, and today it was in a family room with low ceilings. I brought my studio kit, complete with backdrop and lights and had a working studio setup within fifteen minutes of arriving.

In order to get the best expressions from the kids, we had to work quickly. Shooting a few individual shots of them, and rotating them in and out of the room to be photographed with the parents, grandparents, and auntie. I used two large umbrellas for the entire session, and brought in a third light for some of the smaller group shots to add a little more contrast to the portraits.

Family Photos At The Park

For baby's first photo session, we arranged to set up at a local park using the natural surroundings and weathered bridge as our backdrop. I brought two battery-operated flashes to use as we walked around the park to take advantage of the beautiful scenery. We started with some seated family shots, and moved on to some poses of just the mom and dad, then we laid a blanket over a park bench and focused on taking baby portraits. I was able to balance the natural light with my flashes to create depth without washing out the background, or having the portraits turn to silhouette.

As with all of my portrait sessions, I have trouble choosing favorites to share because there are so many fantastic images to choose from. I am never satisfied with just a few snapshots during a photo session, during this session I shot over 200 images. The first part of every session is used to get the jitters out and help everyone relax and let their natural expressions come out. Although I pick favorites, and edit those images; I provide every image from my photo sessions to my clients. I would rather you have them all to cherish than let those images sit unused on my computer. My clients are free to share the beautiful shots with friends and family, laugh over the funny ones, and scrapbook the rest. I allow them the freedom to choose how to preserve their memories.

Baby Riley's First PhotoShoot

Riley was born in November, and was brought in for her first photo session at five weeks old.

I photographed her mother at 28 weeks as part of a maternity before and after progression series.

You can find photos of her pregnancy in earlier posts on this blog, here and here.

We tried several different outfits, hats, and poses while changing the backdrop and props during Riley's photo session. In addition to her solo photos, we also photographed Riley with her siblings, and with the whole family.

You can find more beautiful photos of Riley below: