family holiday portraits
Is your extended family visiting you in Southwest Florida for the holidays? This is the perfect time to get a portrait of everyone while they are all gathered together right in your home! Jason Collin Photography uses off camera lighting and candid style shooting to bring out your family's personality in every shot.
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How often is most of your family in town here in Cape Coral or Ft Myers Florida? How often is your entire family in town? Thanksgiving is the perfect time to have that large, family group photo you always talk about, but never get to have. In as little as 15 minutes I can arrive at your home (or the location of your choice), setup, and have a great portrait of your family made.
Reserve your Family Thanksgiving Portrait with Jason today!
SINGLE FAMILY PORTRAIT SPECIAL -- $99*
reserve special candid portrait session
DELUXE CANDID PORTRAIT PACKAGE -- $299*
reserve deluxe candid portrait session
GRAND CANDID PORTRAIT PACKAGE -- $599*
reserve grand candid portrait session
* $50/$150/$250 single/deluxe/grand nonrefundable deposit required; additional fees may apply
CANVAS GALLERY WRAP PRINTS AVAILABLE
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Me and Kiki Holiday Portrait November 2013 at photography student Stacy's house in Treasure Island, FloridaThere are not many chances to get a portrait made with me and Kiki. When I try self-portraits, Kiki looks like she is being tortured. Otherwise, I have to resort to composite photo gimmicks. So I was glad that photo student Stacy was able to make one of Kiki and I using the same lighting setup I had just used to photograph her daughters in her house for their Christmas Card photo. Kiki still looks a bit tortured, but at least she is looking at the camera this time!
Holiday photo card portrait with three sisters wrapped in Christmas lights - Nikon D4 Nikkor 24-70mm @ f/5.6 ISO 100 2.5 sec tripod mounted - Strobist: SB-800 in 43" brolly frame rightLong time DSLR photography student Stacy invited me to her home to photograph her daughters for their family Christmas card. She said I could bring Kiki along as well (more about this below). This was an unusual shoot as Stacy worked with me to learn how to make portraits and I used much of her own photography gear (note the use of a Nikon D4 for all these shots!). I had shown her my wedding couple wrapped in Christmas lights shot before, which we did with the three sisters for the above image.
Christmas Photo Card portrait three sisters in front of their Christmas Tree - Nikon D4 Nikkor 24-70m @ f/4 ISO 100 1/200th - Strobist: SB-900 to frame right in 43" brollyWhen editing this black & white image I wanted mainly the lights of the tree to be visible in the background framing the girls.
Smiling in front of Christmas tree bokeh for holiday portrait in Treasure Island Florida - Nikon D4 Nikkor 70-200mm with 2x teleconverter @ f/5.6 ISO 6400 1/60th - natural lightUsing the new 2x teleconverter Stacy recently got, I took advantage of an effective 400mm focal length to create extreme bokeh in the background of the above shot of the same Christmas tree lights used in the B&W shot.
Holiday Photo Card Portrait before the fireplace in Florida - Nikon D4 Nikkor 24-70mm @ f/6.3 ISO 100 1/4th tripod mounted - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-900 to frame rightA more formal shot before the lit fireplace, which made things pretty hot for the girls, but throughout our shoot they were great and knew how to get into proper positions unprompted! It was like working with professional models!
In all the shots Kiki was lying near the girls! It was my first time to bring her on a portrait shoot. Now when I try to photograph Kiki she is never happy about it and ends up looking like a sad puppy (see here). However, she was all too willing to get into every photo with the girls and smile! For the piano shot we let a sleeping dog lie and framed the portrait around her. She just wanted to participate and be involved!
It was a fun shoot and a chance for me to try a few new things shooting inside someone's home, as I most often shoot outside on location. I look forward to seeing the photos in print on Stacy's family Christmas card!
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Just the adults from a John's Pass Beach family portrait session - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightThe weather was fine all day as I made my way to the beach at John's Pass to meet a 12-person family all from Canada for family beach portraits. However, once on the beach there were storm clouds everywhere to the south, west and north, but none passed over until the shoot was finished. Lucky again! In this shoot I really tried to stress avoiding just having people line up side by side (the picket fence look) and asked for more hands on interaction, like in the above shot. I placed the man in the pink shirt on the sand first, and then had everyone else stack on top of him.
Sisters having fun on Madeira Beach Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightThese sisters needed no prompting to take up a more fun pose on the beach. The challenge with them was getting them to do something not too crazy with each other!
Just the boys during this Madeira Beach family portrait session - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightOnly the guys in this shot and the best way to keep two active boys under somewhat control is to have them under wraps!
All twelve family members walking down Madeira Beach at John's Pass Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/4 ISO 800 1/500thThe whole 12-person family walking down the beach. Overlap by someone walking too fast is a concern in these shots, so I instructed everyone to walk at the same pace and not get in front of each other. By the second take they had gotten it down.
Cousins all stacked up on Madeira Beach family portraits Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightNothing like a small stack of cousins as the kids when on their own in front of the lens seemed to be more willing to smile and stay put.
The whole family portrait all 12 on Madeira Beach Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/200th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightThis was actually the first shot of the evening, everyone together in a large group shot by the sea grass. Even in this type of shot I encouraged some overlap getting everyone to sit as close to each other as possible to show more emotional connection between the family.
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Sisters having fun on Treasure Island Sunset Beach Florida in this candid portrait - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/160th - Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power to frame left & SB-600 @ 1/4 power to frame rightTwo families were coming to Florida for a warm winter vacation from their homes in Pennsylvania and contacted me about getting family beach portraits. They were staying at Sunset Vistas on Treasure Island, Florida and wanted to use the beach their as the backdrop for their family portraits. I had never been on that stretch of beach before, but I pretty much knew what to expect as virtually all beaches on Treasure Island look the same. The biggest variable was the weather, but we were pretty lucky. The day before the shoot was all day rain. The day after the shoot was arctic and super windy. Our shoot day was perfectly sunny with only a slight chill in the air. Lucky!
The above shot was my favorite of the session, featuring two sisters doing as I suggested, just be sisters. It may end up in my top ten images of 2013 as my favorite candid portrait, we shall see.
All hands on dad in this family sunset portrait on Treasure Island Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/160th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightSince there were two families in this hour portrait session, I had to work twice as fast. There were several group shots with everyone, but otherwise I setup a shot with one family and then quickly had to get the next in place for their turn, all of course with the sun providing its own countdown timer!
Two families watching the sunset on Treasure Island Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/100th - Stobist: SB-800 @ 1/1 power frame left & SB-600 @ 1/1 power frame rightThis was my first time to make this type of shot with so many people. I had to use both speedlights at max power and a relatively large aperture of f/5.6 to light everyone with the sun that low.
Another great Florida sunset at Treasure Island backlights this family portrait - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/160th - Strobist: SB-800 to front frame left & SB-600 to rear frame rightEven though each family had four members and were photographed in the same spot and time was ticking away, I still tried to add as much variety between shots as possible, in the case above using a different pose and moving one of the speedlights behind the family. Compare this shot to the second photo from the top to see how the light changes at sunset time in just 3 minutes.
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Now available for all past portrait clients of Jason Collin Photography is a very easy and convenient way to order professional quality Family Holiday Photo Cards using your already existing photo gallery! Simply visit your secure portrait gallery (via Jason Collin Photography on SmugMug) and follow the steps detailed below to order either a traditional 5x7 folding holiday card or a stunning 4x8 flat holiday card. If you cannot remember the link to your gallery, contact Jason for a reminder.
AFTER YOU VISIT YOUR GALLERY ON JASON COLLIN PHOTOGRAPHY VIA SMUGMUG
TWO CARD STYLE CHOICES: 4x8 FLAT CARD OR 5x7 FOLDING CARD
THIS IS WHAT THE CUSTOM CARD CREATOR LOOKS LIKE
The custom card creator has a simple drag and drop template along with text boxes you can add your personalized titles and messages to. There are dozens of card styles to choose from in 5x7 folding card form or 4x8 flat card style. Once you create your card simply choose how many you want and the order is sent to a professional printing lab and then delivered right to your door for the most convenient holiday photo card ordering process possible.
