Candid Family Vacation Portrait at sunset on Honeymoon Island State Park in Dunedin FloridaAnother great Florida sunset set the backdrop for a very fun candid family Florida Vacation Portrait session at Honeymoon Island State Park. Robert and Bonnie, and their two boys Alex and Aiden were visiting Florida from Kentucky, and picked a great time for a vacation here as the colder than normal winter weather just finished, and the full on heat and humidity has not yet arrived.
The boys had a great time setting each other up with rabbit ears during our candid portrait session
The boys were real characters making my job easy as they loved to play around and were not shy at all. We found this small hole in the beach and turned it into a prop for this natural light (Nikon D300, Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D @ f/4 1/1600th) candid portrait. They were both good sports about everything.
It was peace out for this candid family beach portrait
I really enjoyed all the personality the whole family had and it is a lot of fun to be able to make candid family portraits like the one above. I just set up my strobe on a light stand to frame left, dialed in the settings on my D300, and shot away as they had fun with the portrait session. I gave no directions at all. I did not need to, which is fine by me. This let's me focus on composition and timing and making the best shots I can.
Trying to touch the sky in this candid father and son beach portraitThe above was another natural light portrait. Just 30 minutes before sunset on a day like this makes for great light, and the Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D lens at f/4 produces great results. The 80-200mm remains a good budget alternative to the Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G VR lens, especially for outdoor portrait work.
Thank you to Robert, Bonnie and the boys for a great candid portrait session.