Sometimes I meet new clients through friends. Sometimes they've seen my work on someone's wall and asked about it. Other times, my husband will tell someone at his work about what I do. But every year for the past few years, I have met new clients through the athletics fundraiser at the school where my husband teaches. It's a tradition I look forward to. Every year since I started participating in the program, I've had the pleasure of meeting and photographing a new family, and this year, it was the Longs! Although I had met and interacted with the Longs on multiple occasions in the past, this was the first time I'd done a shoot for them. Photographing a family never fails to give me a new perspective on its members, a glimpse into what makes them "tick" as a family, and a chance to spend a couple of hours with them focusing on nothing but... them!
For the Longs, I chose a location that I am personally quite familiar with, but had never used as a portrait location before. It had some great features: a lake, a dock, old buildings, a large white pergola (fun!), and plenty of trees, park benches, and the like. Our only hiccup came in the form of a seasonally locked dock, which we worked around quite nicely without breaking any laws. Of course, if you were to ask the kids, they might say the biggest hiccup was the breezy-cold spring air, but hopefully now that summer has fully set in, they won't remember that part of the shoot...
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| Right off the bat, I taught the Longs my "secret" fake-laugh trick for getting good smiles. Once they got over the awkwardness of laughing on purpose, they actually got very good at it! ;) |
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| There's no demographic quite like middle-school boys for that penultimate smiling challenge. They always start out so serious! Consequently, I get such satisfaction from getting real smiles out of them. :) |
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| Really? A grand white pergola over an old cobblestone walkway... in a public park? Instant romance. |
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| Just look at these two. Adorable! |
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| If you've visited my blog before, you know I have a soft spot for genuine brother/sister shots. Memories are made of these, my friends. |
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| How do I get so lucky to always snag such beautiful families? |
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| These two were getting pretty silly by this point in the session. In my opinion, silliness can be a great tool. I love how it reads on camera. |
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| Mother + Daughter + Sunset = Lovely. |
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| Backlighting can be a tricky thing to master, but it's so rewarding when it works. I love the dramatic light in this one. |
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| The chin on the hand was all his idea... ;) |
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| When I took this adorable shot, I remember thinking, "Oh my goodness. One day my son will be able to carry ME?" |
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| Again with the sweet brother/ sister shots! This one should probably be kept in a highly visible place in the home, just for those days when they're... not so amicable toward each other. ;) |
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| A sweet parting shot as we were losing the light. |
Well, don't you just love this family? I had such a fun time working with them, and I was honored to be let in to their world, as I know I've said before. I have such a great job!
~ Kathryn
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