Then and Now

The last time I photographed these kids was…11 years ago. It’s fun when clients come back, and I see kids grow. From this far back, I can see I grew too as a photographer! I now notice that I placed brother and sister the same way as I did eleven years ago. Let’s see what else I can dig up….hold on.

I learned many lessons since this family’s last photoshoot with me. One is the importance of scheduling a predictable location. Eleven years ago, we picked a huge nearby park. But on the day of the shoot, the park was flooded with cross-country students running in a meet. Teenagers were running from every direction, it seemed. We needed a plan B, fast. I feel my blood pressure rise just typing about this. On the spot, we needed to drive to another park, I remembered. Fortunately, this plan B park was empty. I now pretty much stick with the same location. I know how the light falls, whether it’s sunny or cloudy. And my blood pressure stays stable.

I also offer digital images, whereas back then I think it was only prints. And therefore, I always shoot horizontally. I learned, the hard way, that it is easier to crop a horizontal image to fit any frame. Verticle images can’t fill a horizontal frame without massive photoshop skills involved. This way, if a client has a specific frame in mind, they can crop their photo themselves to nearly any dimension.

One thing that stayed the same was encountering those same beautiful, smiling faces. They are such a wonderful family, I’m so glad they came back!