Dale Ward Photography

Exploring beach family portraits and learning a lot along the way

Making the transition from amateur to professional photographer is not as easy as I thought.  You can see some of the best shots from this shoot here:  http://www.dalewardphotography.com – see the “Dombroskis On The Beach” gallary.

I was fortunate enough last weekend to have the opportunity to do a photo session with the extended family of a friend.  The location was the Outer Banks of North Carolina, a favorite summer vacation spot for just about anybody on the east coast of the U.S.  The “deal” was a “no fault” photo session, using the family of a very forgiving friend to learn about this kind of portrat photography — an area that I would really like to excell in.  Being assisted by my daughter-in-law, a fine photographer in her own right (http://www.melissabluestudio.com), I had high hopes of creating some memorable shots for the Dombroski family.  For the most part, I was successful as there are some really great shots and, in particular, were at that age where they are a ton of fun to shoot (and listen to their parents!) and a good looking bunch.  But … yes, the inevitable “but” … I learned a lot that I’ll remember for my next beach shoot.  So in the interest of improving my photography and maybe helping somebody else to avoid the same mistakes, I want to share with you what I learned.   Here’s a sample of what we were going for:

Dombroskis and Grandkids

We told the families to be ready to start at 6:30 PM — at the beginning of the “magical hour.”  Since we’d be shooting on their deck that faced the ocean and, of course, was in shadow at that time of day, we had to set up lighting.  Using my Canon 580EX II with a 36″ white umbrella reflector, I started with test shots, firing with Pocket Wizard in manual mode with my Canon 5D Mark II.  After settling in on the right settings, mostly getting the light pointed correctly and exposing to get the beach in the background. we finally, about 15 minutes later, started the photo session.  After about 20 minutes of shots on the decks, we headed to the beach. TThe light on the shoreline was fading fast, but fortunately Melissa and I had scouted a good site with an acceptable, though not ideal background.  We didn’t have a lot of choices as the beach houses lined the beach in the background.  There was fortunately one small area that didn’t have any roofs in the background.

Setting up the umbrella, test shots to get the exposure right, grouping the kids with grand parents, we commenced picture taking … chasing the light as the sun set behind the dunes.  This first shot, I thought was too harsh and not in my creative vision at the time, but the client loved it, so it’ll probably be bought.  Nice thing is that all the faces are well exposed and nobody is in shadow.  Unfortunately, I let my “vision” prevail and not the client’s initial reaction, so this is the only picture with the darker background in the mix.  (Can you say “listen to the client?”)

38mm focal length, 1/100 sec, f/16, ISO 400, with off-camera flash (raw unprocessed)

Pressing on we managed to capture some good shots.  Trying for the more creative “walking on the beach” shots, I learned a lot there, too.  By the time we got to these, the light was just about gone.  I was shooting in aperature priority mode, but in my haste, left the ISO at 400, so shutter speeds were down to around 1/30 sec — not fast enough in this light to stop action.  I also left my focus mode in “One Shot” when I should have been using “AI Servo” to track the focus as the subjects moved.  And with me walking backwards and shooting and composing on the run, I was lucky to get even a single decent shot.  Consequently, most of these shots were blurred on one place or another, making them not worthy of showing to the client.  Here is what I was attempting to do (and showing my best side).

Walking backwards and shooting (good thing I wasn't chewing gum!)

Fortunately, I may be saved by the posed shots with couples.  Are these guys in love or what?

Dave and Lisa

So … what did I learn?

1.  Listen to the client.
2.  Listen to the client.
3.  Don’t rush and get the camera settings right for the circumstances and light.  It’ll pay off later with the client.
4.  Know the range of your flash, particularly when using a diffuser and shooting in manual.
5.  And finally, listen to the client.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 3:21 PM. It is filed under All, My Photography Experiences, My Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.