The next step in creating the perfect family portrait was getting some good images of Ryan and myself. We had a sitter for two hours, and we went over to the base lake with the tripod and remote shutter. I felt really goofy running back and forth between the camera and the pose, but Ryan is exceptional at making any situation fun and more relaxed for me. He was also the one with the remote, because when I hold it, it is painfully obvious. My face always has the “I’m hiding a remote in my hand” look. He did a great job and we took about 100 shots. I went through and chose 35 of my favorites, then he did the final selection of 9 images. While I think it’s important to have an image of mom and dad in any family portrait collection, the time we spent together creating these images was even more priceless. Below are our favorite images with a little commentary.
“Is the light blinking?”
“Okay, okay… soft smiles…”
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING??”
“Making them exciting!”
“Let me see if we can make it look like my head is coming out of your shoulder.”
“Look at that tree and dream about our future…”
“Alright, look like, ‘What is that random camera doing here?’ ”
“The ground is wet.”
“I hope my foot isn’t cut off.”
“For this one, you are a handsome prince strolling through the woods. You see me and are mesmerized by my beauty. As you are trying to woo me, a Far Far Away paparazzi photographer captures our intimate moment.”
The last one is my favorite and is the one that will make it onto my wall. I used two lenses for this shoot, the 70-200 and also an 85mm prime. All of these were taken with the zoom, except for the one showing me slung over Ryan’s shoulder. If you look, you can see that image shows much more of the background range. Prime (no zoom) lenses work well for sprawling landscape shots.
That’s in for the Mommy & Daddy in love shoot. Next up will be Abigail and Thomas. Wish me luck and see you next time! 🙂