Today I am celebrating.
Why you ask?
I successfully completed my first family photo session today from start to finish. Planning, shooting, editing, and now posting.
And I must gloat, I am quite proud of the results!
It was an uphill battle reaching this prideful place though. Yesterday morning I woke up excited with the anticipation of putting my skills to the test. I packed my bag methodically, making sure to include all my lenses, making sure I had a fresh memory card, and a charged battery.
I was headed out that later that evening to take pictures of two very special people in my life. Lexi has been one of my closest friends since the seventh grade and she was looking for some fall pictures of her and her son Alexander. Together we carefully researched and picked the perfect location. We decided on a local tot lot with the potential for fun and fresh colors.
I had all my ducks in a row.
I was ready.
But about 5 minutes into our session I quickly realized the art involved with photographing an independent almost 4 year old is one I may not have been ready for!
I began snapping away and as I looked at the pictures I had captured my thoughts ran a mile a minute. Images were overexposed. They had motion blur. I wasn’t metering correctly. The colors weren’t quite right and lens wasn’t right either but there was no time to change it. If I changed a lens I might miss a moment that could be captured! I arrived with ideas for poses. But Alexander had different ideas. He thought was much more fun to play in the sand with sticks, run around in circles, throw leaves, and look for “alligators” in the creek than take pictures with his mom! So I rolled with it. That’s my style. Go with the flow. Capture the moments as they happen. And as I rolled along I did end up liking quite a few of the pictures.
Below are a few of my favorites from the day. Lexi and Alexander were great sports and we had a lot of fun running around in one of the last and fleeting warm fall days. I sure learned a lot, I hope I did my friends proud, and I hope they like their photos from our evening together as much as I do! To see more fun from our outing together click here. Enjoy!
