I had the pleasure of taking family portraits of Megan, Adam, Knox, and Harper in Broomfield recently. Harper and Knox were more than up to the task of having their picture taken. Harper even spontaneously plopped down to have a little fun posing on her own. I love those moments as a photographer. We chose to do the shoot in a park near the Anthem Ranch Rec Center. The lake provided a nice backdrop for the photos and was a fun place for the kids to explore while not taking photos.
When taking family photos, I like to use relaxed poses and ones that don’t take a lot of time to demonstrate. My primary focus is of course making sure my subjects look good but also won’t be difficult for kids to get in and out of. Making my subjects feel comfortable is another priority. I try to mix up the types of shots I’m taking as well as the people in the group. I took portraits of the entire family, mom and kids, the brother and sister together, and each child. I also know that kids are usually going to have a limited attention span, so I purposefully placed a portrait session with just mom and dad in the middle to give the kids a break.
After a cool, rainy spring, it was nice to finally have a sunny warm day to shoot although I often like more clouds to cut down on the contrast. Due to the contrast, I used two 500 W/S strobes with translucent umbrellas as modifiers. This helped light my subjects’ faces and eliminate shadows.
