Articles tagged ‘family lifestyle’

Old Friends’ Families

Written on January 28, 2010 Posted in Family Photography


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I can count on one hand how many times I’ve been back to the place I grew up since I went away to college.
I was lucky to have a wedding back down in San Diego so I stayed a couple extra days and went to church on sunday, back in the same building I spent countless hours while in jr. high and High School.

While roaming the halls I saw two old friends and of course they had large families by now.
So I told them lets go outside and take some pictures.

We went in the back so we wouldn’t interupt as many people and the kids could run around at ease a bit more.
We just kind of hung out for a while and watched the kids play like kids are known to do.

Why not right? It was more fun for me to chat while a camera was in my hand and while the kids ran around doing fun things.
Plus it’s nice to do nice things for old friends.
Specially the ones that keep in contact the most on facebook.

Even organized a couple of group things.

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You might think I made the poor kid cry… but I stand innocent.
I suppose sometimes kids just cry. I know that never happens to any of your kids.

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Parents aren’t supposed to have favorites… but photographers can.
This red-head is a model in the making.

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House Visits

Written on January 12, 2010 Posted in Family Photography


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So i was down in San Diego for a wedding I went and visited where I grew up in Chula Vista… and then I went and visited an old friend of the family.
I wanted to visit them and I also really wanted to take some pictures of her, her kids and her brother, because I thought it a kind gesture.

See full gallery here

There are benefits of having me stop by the house… Personally I love shooting anytime anywhere.
If there are no expectations even better… (meaning I’m just doing it out of the kindness of my heart and the people don’t expect it to happen and there’s no huge committment.)
And in this case I didn’t feel any expectation or pressure and I was able to just lounge in the couch and had the camera in hand as the kids played around… and I got an good dinner out of it.

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Portraits
We go out and pose kids and get them looking their best… and that’s cool.

Sometimes the mom goes crazy when they goof off during the shoots… sometimes she doesn’t.
Sometimes the kids behave… sometimes they don’t.
That’s just the way it is.

People get a photographer to come and do the portraits that they don’t feel comfortable doing themselves, or perhaps they want to be in it too.

MORE THAN PORTRAITS

But what about a photographer to just be there to Document life sometimes.

This visit

Like for instance I went and visited a friend.
I went out to the car and pulled out my camera.
Nothing changed… they did exactly what they would have done that hour had I not been there.

What the little girl did

The girl finished her math homework. I got them while she was seriously studying… before she even knew what was happening.
Of course she noticed too… then She made faces at me and joked around.
The mom told her to stop making faces… but you know what it’s fine it’s her.

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What the little boy did

He was playing with his airplane and showing it to me… so i had him pose with it.

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He was playing Wii so i just took some candids.

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What the mom did

The mom was working on the computer on top of the washer. She didn’t know… but that’s what life is like that’s what she does, that’s what we do. That’s truly documenting life.

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I’m not saying there’s no interaction from the photographer, that there’s no posing… I suppose it’s a mix of everything… it’s going with the flow, doing whatever happens.

It’s different than a portrait shoot

But with paid shoots this can be harder… because sometimes we have to let go of wanting everything to be exactly the way we planned it.

Just let things happen and trust that I’ll take totally awesome pictures that testify to who your family really is, but maybe a little biased towards making you look good anyway ;)

Sometimes the best things happened unplanned

Sometimes some of the best possible pictures happen unplanned and unposed and they mean the most because it speaks to what life was really really really like.
And that day this is what life was like for that hour. See all

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It’s still a month away but people are getting ready for Christmas.

I had the opportunity to hand with Cortney, Ty and Tanzynn while they made gingerbread houses.

Just an hour of lifestyle pictures of a family having a fun time.
I was helping to make gingerbread houses with them for a little while so I didn’t take too many :)

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Continue reading about Family Lifestyle Pictures – Christmas Style