Blog
Family Portraits — Outdoors in my Favorite Park
Family Portraits — Outdoors! In my 37 year career I have taken hundreds of outdoor family portraits. I have had the good fortune to use the same park for more than 27 years. There are many things that make for a great park for portraits. It should be big, with a variety of backgrounds that can be best used, depending on the time of day the portraits are being taken and if it is sunny or cloudy.
Another feature I appreciate with my ‘favorite’ park is that it is very private. Technically, it is not an official park. It is owned by the Park Board but there is no sign and really only the neighborhood know about it.
As you can see in this portrait, it was an overcast day, which produced a very soft light. I added a small amount of electronic flash to give a little sparkle to the faces. The background I chose carefully and placed the family so they would be balanced between the 2 trees and the rich green foliage in the background.
Then I used all my tricks to get a great expressions from the family dog and all the members of the family. In addition, I am a stickler for comfortable, flattering poses, I pay careful attention to the positioning of arms, legs and heads of each person in the portrait and how they relate to each other.
The end result is a pleasing portrait of a very nice family in nice outdoor setting.
Big Dog, Little Dog Portrait Combo
Different Dogs, one big and one little together in a portrait? For sure, and the truth is it is one of my favorite pet portrait combinations. Dogs, like people have different personalities. Sometimes they are friends and sometimes well, not so much. But no matter, it is still my objective to capture the dogs in poses that show their size difference and and also to keep them nice and close together in the portrait.
Here is where the loving dog parent(s) come in to play, they are my ‘wranglers,’ my helpers that help position and even pose the dogs according to my exact directions. This is critical and something that I could not do without. Sometimes they get a little frustrated with their dogs and I counsel them not to worry and we will get the portraits don
Pet portrait sessions generally are fast paced and often a lot of activity going on while the portraits are being taken. With my experience of having photographed more than 1000 dogs and my split second timing and the way I use all my various attention getting noise makers, I am able to capture cute portraits like this one.
I am now in my 38th year in business and there is nothing I enjoy more than creating pet portraits and portraits of people with their pets and I am truly honored to do so, especially when the pets are senior pets.
A Charitable Promotion–How it works.
Charitable Promotion
What is it and how does it work? I have partnered with Can-Do-Canines, a wonderful and extremely effective service dog organization. The goal of this promotion is to raise $4,000 by promoting a 1/2 priced portrait session and framed 8×10 and that fee goes directly to Can-Do-Canines via their website Here is the link so you can check it out: https://can-do-canines.org/donations/portrait/ Then once the donation is made you can call me and we will set up a convenient date and time for the portrait session. I encourage clients to be in some of the poses with their pets and if they have a family, to also have some family portraits created, too.
The idea of a charitable promotion to work properly is that everybody wins. So, how does everybody win?
First, Can-Do-Canines wins because they receive money to be used in their wonderful work and for the publicity generated by this promotion with more people discovering them and the work that they do.
Second, those that sign up support a great cause and save money with their purchase.
Third, I strive to take great portraits of each winner and tempt them with all the other portraits i take during the sessions so they will want to purchase more. OF COURSE, their is no obligation to purchase additional portraits. This is how it works and indeed everybody does win. If you would like to win and live in the Minneapolis/St.Paul metro area this is an opportunity for you. P.S. You do not have to have a pet!!
Contact Us