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Candid Fun Creative Albuquerque Family Portraits at Highland Park

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Candid Fun Creative Albuquerque Family Portraits at Highland Park

When a family is willing to have real fun in portraits

Earlier in my photography career, I regularly booked family portrait shoots specializing in my own signature candid style. Now I very rarely have family portrait shoots, and typically only for clients I have done other commercial photography work for, like Barb and Dr. Norm. When they asked me if I could do a Christmas Day shoot because that was the only time their entire family would be together, I said yes mostly because I really like them and knew it would be a fun time and I could push the envelope with getting some great candids. The photos in this collection are my own personal favorites from the shoot. The siblings in particular had fun with each other! We made very good use of Highland Park from top to bottom to climbing bars to the merry-go-round!

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John's Pass Madeira Beach Large 12-person Family Beach Portraits Florida

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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.

Sunset Beach Treasure Island Florida Family Beach Portraits with 8 kids!

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8 kids on Sunset Beach Treasure Island Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/160th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightVisiting from Ohio, I got a call about a beach portrait session from Jill who wanted portraits on Sunset Beach on Treasure Island Florida of all of her family, which included 8 kids and 12 people total!  As you can see, all the kids were thankfully about the same age and they all got along so it was much easier than I thought to get all 8 kids in multiple shots over our nearly 90-minutues of actual shooting time.

All 8 kids rolling in the sand on Sunset Beach Treasure Island Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightThe family wanted the kids to be the focus of the shoot, so most shots only featured the children.  The kids themselves had plenty of ideas for shots and were willing to get down on the sand, which meant I also had to get on the sand to get to their eye level for the above shot.

Getting a ride from her brother on Sunset Beach Treasure Island Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/200th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightHe and I were both thinking the same thing when I suggested he give his sister a piggy-back ride for their portrait with the tall sea grass as a background.

Mom and her two children on Sunset Beach Treasure Island Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/200th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightWhen mom is willing to get on the sand and let her kids sandwich her, that is making a sacrifice for the photograph!  I was on the sand too and was glad to have a chance to try this more dynamic beach pose.

Dad and his three daughters on Sunset Beach Treasure Island Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/200th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightMy idea for this shot of a father with his three daughters I wanted to show all the girls surrounding their dad and being as close to him as possible.  Dad was set first as the anchor of the group and then each daughter wedged in next to him.  

Sunset Vistas Treasure Island Florida Family Portraits February 2013

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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.

Redington Beach Florida Family Sunset Portraits

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Piggy back rides for everyone on Redington Beach Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame right & SB-600 to frame leftThe Anderson family was visiting from Canada staying at their condo on Redington Beach for the holidays and while the family was all together, wanted candid Florida sunset beach portraits.  Unfortunately, the weather was not very Florida-like as the temperture was pretty low and the strong wind actually made for a tangible wind chill effect.  Nevertheless, we had a good sunset for a background and made some fun portraits together.

One of my trademark shots, the family facing away from the lens toward the sunset - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/200th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightThey had seen my other photographs of families looking away from the camera and out toward the sunset and specifically requested to have one of these trademark shots of mine.  I added a bit of a soft filter to the image this time as I felt the high detail of the original did not match the overall feel of the shot.

Staying close for warmth & the portrait! - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/160th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left and SB-600 behind to frame rightOne thing you may notice in all my sunset portraits is that I always get the people's heads above the horizon as much as possible so the horizon is not unpleasantly bisecting anyone's head.  In order to do that for the family while sitting, I had to lay down on my stomach right on the sand!  Beach portrait photography does require getting messy sometimes.

Brother & sister having fun on Redington Beach Florida at sunset - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightI always like to see siblings having fun together, and here brother gives sister a lift with a bright sun setting behind them.  I feel these kinds of shots will have the most impact twenty years from now and hopefully will help remind the siblings of the fun of their childhood, and in these case, teenage years together.