family portrait – JWNPhoto.com

Articles Tagged with: family portrait

The Philbeck Family

I was laying in the dirt for this shot, using my left leg to hold down some of the brush as I composed this shot. My wife Amy was on hand holding the light stand, and I think I may have disturbed an ant hill or two. The sun was falling so I had to be quick! Moments later, I hurried this family to the other side of the bridge into the tall grass.

The race was to get as many family shots off during the falling sun and to ultimately get this sunset silhouette of Allison & Eric:

My wife & I met the Philbecks a couple of years ago while we were on our first cruise. Like us, they were on their first cruise and they also got to leave their kids at home. Needless to say we hit it off! When Eric contacted me about shooting his family, I was more than happy to oblige.

It was interesting to get to meet their children, hopefully next time they make it down, they’ll get to meet our kids 😉

I was happy to give them a little personalized piece of Charleston to take home with them. Taking iconic photos in Charleston is almost cheating when it comes to location shots!

The Bantz Family

This morning I had the joy of spending an hour with the Bantz family. I met Don and Jana through my wife Amy a few years back. In fact, I just dug up this iPhone pic of them with their son Cameron at last year’s Brevival:

The game plan was to get a casual family photo in their backyard. Unfortunately, the spot where they wanted to shoot was riddled with dappled light and harsh shadows. We only a limited time with Cameron’s fiance to get the shot they were looking for, so I didn’t have time to set up the proper lighting to handle that kind of situation (it would take a lot of power to overpower the sunlight). We found a safer spot in the shade and got this:

I also went for a more extreme look and used that bright natural backlight to get some cool lens flare (I also love the dog in the background of this shot):

The other shot that they really wanted is the one at the top of the post. They wanted to recreate an older photo (which Don is holding in this one) of Don with the boys, who are now men! I also got them to shoot some indoor family shots while we were at it: