PBPhoto

As much as photography is about composition, lighting, technique, all of that is for naught if you don't have a beautiful subject to photograph.  That's one of the reasons that I enjoy family portraits.  What's more worthy of capturing than a beautiful family and all that the institution of family represents; love, commitment, joy, struggle, victory, love (I meant to do that).  So with that in mind here are my long time friends and please contact me for booking your next family photos.

I am a Floridian, a cracker.  Many people don't know that the term "cracker" came from the crack of  the whip of the early Florida cowboys.  Many people don't know that there are cowboys (and cowgirls) in Florida, or that Florida is always 1 or 2 in cattle production in the country, or that the largest cattle ranch in the country is in Florida, or that there is great hunting in Florida, or for that matter that there are animals in Florida other than a certain mouse that seems to be so popular.  A little bitter?  Maybe.  Oh wait this is a photography blog.

So I have been to places in the country and outside the country that are beautiful.  Purple mountains, flowing rivers, you get the point.  But there is a rugged beauty to Florida once you get away from beaches and talking rodents.  Our friends lived on this beautiful property in Melbourne.

This is such a great family.  Thankful to be friends with them.  Happy to capture these senior photos for them.
This is the tree house that she grew up playing in.

This was a fun shoot. 

We did a lot of different things here in terms of lighting.  My gear for this was one strobe in a softbox on a boom stand with a sandbag for balance.  I used it for a key light above balanced with backlight provided by the Lord.  This softbox has become my goto modifier outdoors primarily because it handles the wind much better than an umbrella.

 

I didn't always use it.  Above is just the backlight.  The subjects face is in shadow and the background is allowed to blow out.

 

Here is a similar shot but I brought the softbox in to add some directional key light to her face.  You can see the shadows from her nose.

I like to use different perspectives as well.  Above is taken from atop the bench that you will see below.  The wood of the pier makes and interesting background with great texture.

There's the bench above. 

Her best friend since 3 years old just happened to be at the same park at the same time getting her senior portraits done as well so we took some of them together.

 

This one is under a gazebo with the softbox for key light and crouching until the sun just peaked under the overhang.

I love the background here.

And one of my favorites.

I hope she is blessed as she graduates into an exciting new phase of life.

I hope you are blessed too!

Here a few from a recent baby shoot.  This guy had places to go apparently.

What a cutie.  He was such a great model.

Recently got a Christmas card from friends/clients.  It included the above photo.  In large lettering, "Happy Everything".  Man does that fit.  They are so fun and easy to work with. 

So we took these with combinations of natural light filtered through bed sheets to the left, bare strobes into the ceiling, bare strobes directly aimed at the subject, and my new favorite light modifier, the small softbox that I use with my battery strobes.

Here is an example of the natural light from the window to the left.  The sun was hitting it directly so we hung bed sheets to diffuse it.  I also bounced a strobe into the white ceiling to the right.


















Here's a fun one.










For more of an edge, here I blasted bare strobes from each side.


















Here's the love.


















And more of the love.
















And I'll finish with some of the expressions of the rock-n-roller above.

















































Be blessed.  More photo shoots to come . . .

It's great to be one.  Especially for this little girl.  There is a long wonderful story about this one that would be great to share.  But I'll let you ask her Mommy and Daddy about it.  

So a year ago she looked something (actually she looked exactly) like this.

 
















And now, a mere 12 months later . . . 
 

I have to admit that Mommy had all of the good ideas on these.  I only had to capture it.  I love the mirror.  I took a little thinking to decide where lights should be placed but we did it.


   


















The pew bench is a great prop (out of our living room).  The decorations . . . all Mommy.  Although I think those ladybug wings are ours.  I still only have a cross-light pattern here.  A strobe light with an umbrella for key and a bare strobe for accent.  But they had to be placed strategically when working with the mirror.  And we had to work hard to keep everyone and the equipment out of the shot.

 








 

We are really happy for this family.  Happy to call them friends.  Happy that they have been blessed with this little thing.  

Spent some time with my buddy Bryan Boliver and his wife.  He is a singer/songwriter and we took some photos to feed his websites for a while.  We used a few different lighting styles.  In the lead photo above you see side lighting with bare strobes.  Very harsh shadows.  I love the technique.  Gives  a good edge to the photo.

Here are some more.


Then we took some ambient light stuff as well since the sun was setting.  Placed the sun behind him and exposed for his face and let the background blow out.


Also used an umbrella for key light with an accent light behind and opposite the key light for a more classic look.


Be blessed!