First Project... Life's a Beach

Drove down to the beach last night with a fabulous family to try to capture some nice shots. It really was a beautiful afternoon giving way to evening. The lighting was perfect and a good setting.

I haven't had much of an opportunity to photograph these four kids together... and I have to say it was more of a challenge than I anticipated. The ages between the kiddos spans five to sixteen. It was kind of an interesting dilemma to try to get the older kids (who feel awkward posing in sentimentally sweet stances) to mesh with a very busy five year old who thought my shutterbugging was an infinite nuisance.

I realize the set of challenges those portrait studio people face as they stand there squeezing their rubber duckies, trying to make the kids look their way for a split second.

I didn't have a rubber duckie.

So I just did what I could and played around.

I found the best tactic to utilize with the busy little man is to just let him do his thing. He wanted to jump off the sand dunes. He wanted to run in the ocean. He did not want to look into a camera lens. I just followed him around and tried to catch those moments of lovin' the beach.

And he loves his big brother. Of the scenes that I tried to photograph within that hour, for some reason these were the easiest... the two boys playing in the surf...

And this was my favorite shot of the set:

I loved it because I asked the older brother if he could lift little brother up in the air... and the little one screamed "NO!" and he meant it. So it seemed like a lost cause, but they went ahead and tried... and note the look on the little one's face. Despite his protests, he loved it. And that's why I love it too.

Wow. These kids are growing up. Hate to be nostalgic here, but I've known these kids for 14 years, and remember this "little" one coming over to my house dressed in a superman cape, cowboy boots and a diaper.

He's practically a man now. When did this happen?

And these beautiful sisters... time may be marching on but when I look at their expressions in this photo I see the same little girls I've always known.

I took 102 shots in an hour, including the entire family and am only posting a small sampling here. I think with every "session" I do, I need to take note of what I learned. Yesterday I just walked out of there with no specific plan, just thought I'd "feel it" and see what happens. That's probably okay if you're working with one person, but not six. Have a plan, have some shots in mind. Some days the creative juices will be flowing, and some days it just won't be there.

I need to just keep snapping away, especially the moments between the poses. My favorites from this set were the unplanned ones. The PLAN was to have all the kids hold hands and jump off a sand dune. While the jump shot was cute, I loved the BEFORE shot... the one when they're laughing at how ridiculous they feel holding hands:

And of course with the little ones... it isn't worth it to push. They want to do what they want to do. I'd rather catch them running away from the camera and laughing than looking at the camera scowling. It's all good.

Teenagers... I'll never figure them out as long as I live, so just roll with it. Actually, these kids were awesome. Very few eye rolls. Guess they know me by now and accept my weirdness.

So my first session since "Picture the Cure"s inception is in the books. I liked the challenge of it. If nothing else, I hope the family will enjoy some of the shots. I saw a lot of smiles, even if they were as a result of feeling silly. I take what I can!