Quality Time Portraiture

While I do tend to take pictures of my own family when I spend time with them. I prefer these days more time with my own family without my camera because being behind a camera separates me from interacting completely. This separation is not a bad thing, and it is not a complete separation it is more of a different type of interaction when from behind a camera. It is not a complete participation. Naturally, it has become something that creates a more genuine interaction with families I have taken pictures for. I have begun to offer spending time portraits in which I don't get very much into formal portraiture. I may take several group photos, but the majority of this type of offering is to spend time and separate myself so that I am capturing authentic moments between family members. This spending time photography tends to be much more candid and personal. Since I really enjoy candids, I actually prefer this over a more formal pose and shoot interaction. It has been a very fulfilling type of work. I am continuing to grow into my portraiture work and this has definitely been a smoother transition for the type of work I am used to. Formal portraiture has been much more demanding of my research and learning part of photography. I am much more comfortable and competent with spending time portraiture because this has been the majority of my experience with people photos.

These two families highlighted in this blog are long-time friends, who have beautiful families. I am grateful to have them as friends and be able to capture moments that will be cherished and remembered by them for the rest of their lives. I frequently get the comment that I always have such beautiful subjects in my photos, and I agree and am lucky to have these opportunities, but I also think that everyone is beautiful as individuals different from each other. I seek to capture that individuality and beauty in each of my subjects the same way I strive to capture love in my photos. Love is beautiful. I hope that my photos express that beauty and love in a way that is not only for those who are in the photos but for inspiration to all those who want to be seen and portrayed in that same light.