This past year I've been pre-occupied with writing a book and getting a brand new photography website up and running. All this while I did my best to keep my portrait photography business alive and well. This past July a very nice family from Ohio contacted me about doing some family beach portraits while they were on a summer vacation and staying in La Jolla, California. While they were there the children/grandchildren wanted to give a portrait session as a birthday gift to their mother and grandmother, Nancy. I thought that was a very nice and thoughtful gift. After emailing back and forth a bit and agreeing on a price and location, we set a date for the shoot. Since they were staying at a rental house that was walking distance from Wind n Sea beach, I thought this seemed like the perfect location for the photo shoot. So on the scheduled date, my assistant and I got to the beach early to scout out a spot that would work best for the group and couples portraits. Once everything arrived we chatted a bit and I was introduced to the whole family. After a short stroll down the beach we settled into an area that had shallow water the gently rolled over the rocks and tide pools.
Since I know that family group shots are the hardest to do, I like to start with those first and break into the couples and single head shots. One of the great things about shooting at the beach is that the backgrounds are pristine and uncluttered. And when families are willing to get a little wet, I like to place people in ankle high water so I can get that beautiful reflective quality that water has. The photo above is of my contact, Chelsea, her husband and two children (a boy and girl who are close in age).
The photo above is of Nancy, who was the birthday girl, mother/grandmother and her husband Jack. This image was created with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with a Canon 35mm f/1.4 prime lens. Natural golden hour light reflected camera left to bounce light back into their eyes.
When I arrange family group portraits I like to have some people standing and some people sitting to give a more relaxed and staggered composition. Wind and Sea beach is great for that since it's one of the few beaches in San Diego that actually have rocks like this near the shoreline. I guess that's why it's usually crawling with other photographers who know that as well. Another nice thing about this beach is that I can get up high and above people's faces so I can have some shots where I'm shooting on a downward angle. Now getting everyone to smile and look my direction at one time is another story. This shot was light with one Speedlite flash triggered off camera by Pocket Wizard II plus radio triggers into a large silver umbrella.
Nancy's wanted to make sure she got some photos of her with her three beautiful grandchildren.
I love how the portrait above turned out. As the sun was quickly setting in the background, my favorite "golden hour" light was perfect for backlighting this family portrait. I also had my assistant reflect a some light back into their faces with a large sunlight/silver reflector camera left. I used a Canon 35mm f/1.4 prime lens, which is one of my favorite lenses in my bag.
Just the grandchildren lit with reflected beautiful golden hour light.
OK, this was a difficult shot to attempt to light with just one Speedlight flash, but I went for it anyway. It took a some time to get everyone placed just right, but I never was able to get the youngest family member to smile and look my way. I think by this time, he was allll done with pictures.
This could be one of my favorite portraits from the session. Composition, smiles that are sincere and the fact that I have a daughter and son pretty much the same age. So to see two siblings cooperating and getting along so well after posing for god knows how many shots, I was impressed. I'm sure they made their mom, dad and grandmother very proud.
I wanted to end with this photo of Chelsea and her brother acting like brother and sisters should act like. God knows I was like this with my own sister growing up... and I guess I still give her a hard time to this day. I want to thank everyone in this family for making this session fun and enjoyable. I just hope my next family portrait shoot is as fun!
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