One of my favorite genres of photography is family portraits. There are specific lenses that are designed for portraiture, with the main purpose of separating the subject from the busyness of some backgrounds. This 135mm F1.8 Sony lens does a wonderful job of achieving just that. Here area few of my favorites from this session.
The family portrait season is upon us. Funny how the end of the year signals the time to tie up loose ends, accomplish the goals that were set at the beginning of the year, etc. This includes recording the growth of the kids, including new family members and perhaps visiting grandparents, etc. I have enjoyed photographing this family for years, and yes there was a new little one, and the others have grown and changed. The commitment to document the family progress over the years is a worthy one. As a grandparent who photographed her kids often as they grew, I now watch my grandkids going through old albums of their parents at their age, asking all kinds of questions and hugely enjoying the experience. Here are a couple of my favorites from last weekend’s session.
This is probably my favorite genre of photography. Most of the time, I don’t know the personalities of the families that I shoot, since I have only just met them. I still try and highlight obvious traits, like the mischief in a child, or the tenderness of a mother, but this shoot was different, because I was photographing my own six grandkids, all of whom I know very well. They range in ages from one to twelve, and here are my favorites of each of them.
I live in the city, an increasingly busy city, but my heart has always been for the country and wide open spaces. This last week or so, I have enjoyed a slightly higher elevation, less humidity, and cooler temperatures in the town of Hillsborough, North Carolina. Keeping me company were my two kids, their spouses, and six grandkids! What fun for these city kids to feed chickens and pigs and collect eggs mornings and evenings. We also found and killed two snakes that were stealing the eggs. Tomorrow I move on to Brevard, my favorite mountain town, but here are some pics from this past week.
Summer is not the ideal time for taking family portraits, but sometimes you just have to fit it into the schedule, and this is the only time that works. Even at 7pm, the sun is still high in the sky and the temperatures are close to 90 degrees in Charleston, never mind the humidity. All of that said, this family did great. The kids were engaged and cooperative, and Mom and Dad never lost their sense of humor.
Well, not technically (biologically) family, but we’ve known Jamie for 90% of his life, so he may as well be. After years of searching, he finally found his girl, also called Jayme, spelled differently but pronounced the same. It was an exciting weekend of re-connecting with friends and family, some of whom traveled a long way to be a part of the celebrations. Congrats Mr. & Mrs!
I photographed Sarah when she was pregnant with Jenna about 10 years ago. This lovely young lady is now nine years old. One of the things I most enjoy about portrait photography is the challenge of communicating personality and emotion. These images show so clearly the affection between these two. Thanks Sarah for choosing me through the years to document this journey.
It was a pleasure to have these two sisters in the studio the other day for some updated headshots. Gosh, I love what I do!
It’s that time again. Halloween decorations are everywhere, thoughts are turning to Thanksgiving plans, and then before you know it, Christmas will be here. Some are getting organized ahead of the curve and getting their Christmas card photos done and dusted. Charleston has so many picturesque backdrops that’s it’s hard to choose a theme. This family chose historic downtown for personal and aesthetic reasons. It’s always amusing because everyone wants to have these memories later, but they don’t much enjoy having to endure their time in front of the camera. Kudos to these guys, especially the kids. They did great. If this is something you’ve been meaning to schedule, please contact me. It really is a relatively painless process and kids grow up fast 🙂
As we know, Charleston summers are HOT! Not the most ideal season for outdoor portrait sessions. Make-up literally melts off the ladies’ faces and people (and kids) can get cranky sooner rather than later. However, it is also a time when families are reuniting for summer vacations and wanting to capture memories of time spent together. This was the case when this family gathered in Charleston from scattered locations for a week of catching up. They were not cranky and I think they will treasure the memories for a long time.
