The weekend before last, I met up with my husband’s cousin’s extended family (her in-laws) for a little portrait session on their gorgeous family farm. I had planned to share this preview on Friday, but life (Felicity) slowed me down a bit. Better late than never, right?
So…back to our session. Since it was such a beautiful day, I thought it might be nice to bring my whole family (aka husband and Felicity) along.
Felicity had never seen horses before (which I now realize are not a part of today’s preview – oops), and I thought it’d be a good place for her to explore. Funny that I don’t have any pictures of her exploring.
It’s been a while since I’ve done an adult only portrait session. I’m so used to chasing after babies and toddlers, it took me a minute to adjust to stationary subjects.
One thing I need to brush up on before I do my next adult session (coming this week) is the art of cracking natural smiles. Farts and pig snorts just don’t do the same thing for grown ups.
I seem to remember that during my engagement session years ago, our photographer would tell my husband to tell me something funny…to which he’d say something pretty ridiculous and I would give him a smile.
I have no idea what that has to do with this particular session, but it’s on my mind. I do often tell my clients to talk amongst themselves while I adjust settings. I hardly ever tell people I’m ready for them because they immediately tense up again. Instead, I just start shooting and call their name. If I’m lucky (and hopefully I’m good), they’ll turn naturally…still wearing that beautiful and natural smile.
Dogs…not so much. You just have to be still (at least in the case of the dogs in this post). If they know you’re there, they’re much more likely to come over and give you a kiss.
What else was I going to say…oh yeah…funny story (funny to me at least)…
I am often asked by my clients, “what should we wear?” To which I regularly point people to Pinterest for ideas…or suggest they start with the youngest members of the family (example – I would start by dressing Felicity and then build the rest of the family’s outfits around hers) and work their way up.
Some people like to do neutrals or white…which is okay, but there are so many other options. I like to choose a color palate (two to four colors) and add texture and pattern. Lay them all out before your shoot and see what you think. Okay, so that said – Sarah (my husband’s cousin) told me that she had initially suggested neutrals for the family. The boys and their wives came out with some variation of white and blue. Then mom and dad came out. Mom was wearing something that would easily go with the blues that the others were wearing…but Dad was wearing a Hawaiaan shirt. I thought it was great – dads always know how to give a family portrait some personality!
Another funny story…I almost fell in the pool. I was setting up a shot and backing up. The pool had a cover on it so I didn’t realize that I was backing into the pool. Luckily, only two of them saw it. Of course, I’m now telling the world. It could have been worse. HA HA
With all that said, we had a wonderful afternoon and I’m glad to finally share these photos. Have a great week and I’ll be back in a few days with another recent client session…and with any luck, I may take new photos of Felicity. We’ll see.
