Entries in Sunset Beach (19)
Family Beach Portraits Sunset Beach Treasure Island St Petersburg Florida
Friday, April 27, 2012 at 1:34PM Jason Collin 
Vivid family sunset beach portraits on Treasure Island Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 200 1/250th Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightIt was great to see the Martineau Family again, who I first photographed back in the summer of 2010. They were once again visiting from Pennsylvania with their three children. We met at the same beach on Treasure Island, Sunset Beach, my favorite beach in all of Florida. This is a great place for family beach portraits, and also skimboarding!
Pulling light from the sky long after the sun went down - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 640 1/60th Strobist: SB-800 to left & SB-600 to rightI was looking forward to seeing how much the children had grown in the past two years. The most noticable growth was of course with their youngest, and the fact that he could now talk and his favorite words appear to be "alligator golf."
Cartwheel sunset beach skills! - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/60th Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightBeing a Thursday evening in late April Sunset Beach was mostly free of tourists and locals as well so we pretty much had the entire half-mile strip of beach to ourselves. The only passersby were some water birds.
Family running on the beach having fun - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 500 1/500th natural lightLast time we made a very similar shot to the one above with the family running and laughing down the shoreline. The biggest difrerence this year was that it was a cloudless sky, whereas two years ago a storm was just upon to fall on the beach providing a dramatic cloudy sky for a background.
Siblings having fun on the beach - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/80th Strobist: SB-800 to left & SB-600 to rightThe cloudless sky helped me be able to make shots well after the sun went below the horizon and still pull some color out of the twilight sky.
Family beach portrait watching the sunset - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/100th Strobist: SB-800 to left SB-600 to rightI was very glad to be able to continue to be the Martineaus family photographer on their Florida visits and I look forward to their next visit!
 |
 |
Treasure Island Sunset Beach St. Petersburg Florida - why we live here
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 4:15PM Jason Collin 
Sunset Beach, Treasure Island, St. Petersburg, Florida - my favorite beach - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 2 sec tripod mounted with cable releaseIt seems to me Florida is a very specific place to live. It is warm and its extremely long coastline is all beach. These two things are why we live here. Being a specific place to live, it lacks certain things, most notably mountains and four seasons. Instead of mountain views there are amazing sunset and twilight sky views that fluctuate in color throughout the year. Intesad of four seasons there are essentially two, the humidity season (April through September) and the dry air season (October through March).
I value being able to go swimming at the beach in February. I like wearing shorts 362 out of 365 days per year. I pay a price in sweat for those things though. Therefore, in the remaining days of the dry air season, I savor each one, like today.
Why do you live in Florida?
Gulf of Mexico, Sunset Beach, Treasure Island, beach, sky, twilight in Photo Story Off Camera Flash Strobist Beach Portrait Photography Lesson Florida
Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 5:08PM Jason Collin 
Jasmina practicing off camera flash with a single strobe on Sunset Beach, Treasure Island, FloridaIt was bright and sunny an hour before my lesson with new DSLR Photography Lesson student, Jasmina. She called me to see if the lesson was still on because it was raining where she was to the south. I said it's all sunshine here and it was so right up to the start of our lesson. Then the clouds began rolling in, but no rain at all so it was just a bit chilly on the beach as I began showing Jasmina my off camera flash and strobist techniques for making beach portraits.
She brought a willing model with her which was great news for me because this meant I did not have to be both model and teacher! Actually, I did have one role in addition to teacaher, and that was human light stand. We used Jasmina's Nikon SB-900 Speedlight for single strobe technique at first, but added one of my own strobes to show the benefit having two lights sources has.
It was a fun and intereting lesson for me as I do not often get to teach strobist stuff, which is one of my favorite types of photography. I look forward to seeing Jasmina's future off camera flash portraits on the beach and off.
Candid Family Beach Portraits Sunset Beach Treasure Island Florida
Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 4:14PM Jason Collin 
Juliana & family on Sunset Beach Treasure Island St. Petersburg - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/100th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/4 power to frame left & SB-600 Speedlight @ 1/4 to frame rightRESERVE CANDID FAMILY BEACH PHOTOGRAPHY IN VIVID COLOR FOR YOUR FAMILY TODAY!
It was very nice to see Juliana and her family again after having first met them last year when I photographed her 7th Birthday Party. At that time she was missing most of her front teeth, but this year her smile was brighter than ever. Mother Nature provided yet another stunning Florida sunset of the Gulf of Mexico to be our background for our candid family beach portrait session.
Juliana & a sand dollar - Sunset Beach Florida - Nikon D300 with Nikkor 50mm @ f/2.8 ISO 200 1/1600th natural lightWhen we first arrived at my preferred spot on Sunset Beach, Treasure Island Juliana found half of a sand dollar on the beach. Soon after she found the other half. That seemed like good luck to me so I thought the sand dollar halves should be in one of our photos. When you shoot in good natural light, as you can see, there is not even need for fill flash.
"Avant Garde" Father Daughter Beach Portrait - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/100th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/4 power to frame left & SB-600 Speedlight @ 1/4 to frame rightJuliana and her father had kind of just wandered into these positions between shots. It caught my eye and I scrambled to get my lights in position to light both Juliana (far in the background) and her father (large in the foreground) before they could move. In the end I asked Juliana to look at the lens to produce the final image above.
Father & Daughter Candid Family Beach Portrait - Nikon D80 with Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 200 1/320th natural lightI hope these photographs serve to illustrate that not every family beach portrait session attire needs to be white shirts and blue jeans. I suggested that Juliana and her family wear what clothes they feel they look their best in, although I think Juliana's mom had final word on her wearing that dress since she told me that was not how she dressed every day.
Each with their own style - candid family beach portrait - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/100th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/4 power to frame left & SB-600 Speedlight @ 1/4 to frame rightI always like there to be some clouds in the sky at sunset time as they add interest to the background by reflecting the rays of the setting sun. I once heard, "a cloudless sky is the enemy of the landscape photographer." I would not say that for beach portraits, but for sure I prefer clouds over no clouds.
Candid little girl beach portrait - Sunset Beach Florida - Nikon D300 with Nikkor 50mm @ f/2.8 ISO 200 1/1600th natural lightI like to let kids do what they like during a candid portrait session as they are the types of photographs I like to make best myself. The feeling when shooting is totally different too. There is a certain tension in a photographer's mind that arises when having to position people for a shot, rather than the photographer moving about the subject freely shooting when instinct says so.
Letting the setting sun dominate this family beach portrait - Nikon D80 with Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/200th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/2 power to frame left & SB-600 Speedlight @ 1/2 to frame rightFor the above type of shot one of course needs to use manual mode to make the exposure do what you want as aperture priority or shutter priority modes would not allow one to get the results as seen. Radio triggers for one's strobes are necessary too as I was shooting with a long lens not nearly close enough for Nikon's built in Commander Mode triggering method.
Juliana is a natural model - Sunset Beach Treasure Island Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/100th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/4 power to frame left & SB-600 Speedlight @ 1/4 to frame rightJuliana is a natural model. The above pose was just one of like five she went in and out of in succession. It was hard to keep up! Of course when the subject feels comfortable in front of the lens and knows how to best position themselves, then it just makes the photographer's job all that easier allowing for more concentration on the creative part of photography. Also, you can see that I pretty much settled on f/8 ISO 200 1/100th for my strobist shots during this session. Once I get the settings I like dialed in, that also frees me to focus on just composition, etc.
Juliana as ballet dancer at twilight - Sunset Beach Treasure Island Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/4 ISO 200 1/160th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/4 power to frame left & SB-600 Speedlight @ 1/4 to frame rightThis was the final shot of the night that required a couple of takes, but Juliana did her part very well! I forgot to ask if she takes ballet lessons or not.
The first time I tried this staggered family positioning - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/100th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/4 power to frame left & SB-600 Speedlight @ 1/4 to frame rightDuring this family beach portrait session I tried several new things, which is key to me, as I have done many of these types of shoots and I am always trying to avoid repeating myself looking to add if not entirely new shots at least variations. This time there were several totally new images, like the above staggered positioning from shore to water. It helps to have had a three person family. For sure at least having an odd number makes the composition work better.
The better you know the people you are photographing the easier it is to produce satisfying images. Therefore, it is not surprising that my second time photographing Juliana and her family was one of my all-time favorite family beach portrait sessions.
 |
 |
Florida Family Beach Portraits with Dramatic Skies - South Dakota Family
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 at 11:17PM Jason Collin 
Family Beach Portrait - Sunset Beach on Treasure Island Florida - Nikon D300 with Tamron 17-50mm @ f/6.3 ISO 400 1/60th Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power above front & SB-600 @ 1/8 power directly behind family
A few months ago Melanie contacted me from South Dakota about having family beach portraits here in Florida when her family was to come down on vacation. I always like to photograph out of state families as they have full appreciation for the beauty of our Gulf beaches. Locals I guess get used to spectacular sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico. A large storm was scheduled to roll over central Florida around the time of our scheduled portrait session, but we stayed dry and were treated to dramatic stormy skies for use as backgrounds.
Sunset Family Beach Portrait - St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D80 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens @ f/5.6 ISO 400 1/100th Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power to frame left & SB-600 @ 1/4 power to frame rightThe sky kept changing from dark blue (see top image) to fiery yellow (above) to metallic purple (see below). I had never seen it go through such a range of color before. Often the intensity of one color will vary, but to get three distinct background colors was unprecedented.
Family Beach Walking Portrait - Sunset Beach St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 with Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 800 1/250th natural lightOne other good thing about the stormy weather is that it kept almost all the people away from Sunset Beach, so we had no trouble making the above shot of Melanie's family talking a long walk down the shoreline. I was able to make the shot I wanted to in just one take.
Father tossing children in air - Nikon D300 with Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 640 1/250th natural lightWhat a great feeling to be tossed up into the air, especially when you never know if you will land in the ocean! Too bad it is not common for someone to be able to toss 185 pounds into the air. I would like to be able to touch the sky too!
Young boy candid beach portrait - St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 with Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 640 1/250th natural light - sepia landscape filter applied in Silver Efex ProI titled the above photo, "The Fighter." I would say he is a southpaw by the looks of things. I am glad I was using my Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D lens from a distance for this shot and was at no risk of that left hook!
Purple Twilight Florida Family Beach Portrait - Treasure Island - Nikon D300 with Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 800 1/50th Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 +2/3 power frame left & SB-600 @ 1/4 power frame rightTheir dad had all sorts of shall I say "unique" expressions to get the children to look at me, such as "Elmo is coming out of the top of his head," and the like. I had not heard that one before but it worked so that's all that matters. It was a fun challenge photographing this family of five and I am very pleased with the results the stormy skies provided.
 |
 |