Out-of-Town Clients
This family did a web search for the finest portrait photographer in the Cincinnatti area and decided that what they were looking for was not in Cincinnati, Ohio, but in Lexington, Kentucky, which is approximately a ninety-minute drive. Because of the distance, we did all of the planning and clothing design over the telephone. They had been going to different photographers every five years when they updated their family portraits, but I hope that we will now be their family photographer. It is not uncommon for us to photograph families from Cincinnati and beyond, but it is normally from referrals rather than from web searches. Not only did they drive down for the session, they returned to Lexington for the sales presentation. We offered to deliver the finished portraits to their home, but they were too excited and came to us a third time to pick them up! In all, they made three trips—for a total of at least nine hours on the road for this portrait session.
A Relaxed, Playful Look
This family came to us for a black & white portrait, but they left it to us to decide how the session would flow. It did not take me long to realize that their clothing fit their personality; they were not a shirt-and-tie or fancy-dress type of family. They were fun, animated, and down to earth.
They wanted portraits of the three kids, but they also wanted something of the family. When there are really young children, I like to start the session with the family portraits to get the kids used to me. During the pre-portrait consultation, we tell our clients not to coach their children to smile for the camera. We actually prefer no expression from them so we can evoke natural expressions during the session.
Additional images from the same session.
Portraits like these, with the family having fun, are never strategically planned. Our portraits are spontaneous moments. Someone might say something, they all react, and I am there to capture it. They loved the playful look that we created throughout the session and purchased a 24-inch square portrait of the pose above.