A Repeat Client
We began photographing this family when Mom was a resident at the University of Kentucky. We photographed her during her residency, created maternity portraits, shot newborn portraits of her older children, and now continue to photograph the couple’s children as they grow up.
Contrasts and Connection
The facing-page image shows another example of creating contrast using Dad’s big hands to support the one-month-old baby. Dad’s big hands and long fingers were a key factor in creating this dynamic image. The portrait would have worked with any size hands because they would be bigger than the baby, but this athletic Dad’s hands and fingers take the image to the next level.
What makes this image really special is how well-defined the baby’s features are. The lips, the nose, the little dimple under his mouth, and the creases in his arm all added to the impact. I like how the baby is hanging in Dad’s hands, communicating the feeling of his dependency on his father.
Shooting Square
When we started our relationship portraits genre, we sold only square, museum-quality photographs. Even though we were shooting in a rectangular format, we masked the photograph for a square in the camera. I did this because I did not want clients having to choose between vertical and horizontal formats when they were selecting images for a series. Delivering only square portraits was easier, more pleasing, and eliminated any confusion. Now that we have introduced canvas portraits, we do create horizontal and vertical images—but all of our museum-quality images remain square.
Additional images from the same session.
Camera Settings
This was photographed with my Canon Mark II 5D and a 70–200mm lens set at 150mm. My exposure was f/9.5 at 1/60 second with an ISO of 100 in RAW capture.