Family Portraits

I love it when potential clients contact me with a defined goal for their photography sessions. This was the case when I was contacted by the Toro children; Claudio, Chris and Veronica who wanted to have some family portraits done as a gift to their Mum for her birthday. They wanted to hang these latest family portraits alongside another that was taken over 15 years ago. Over that time a lot of things had changed, not the least of which was the addition of two lovely granddaughters Olivia and Mya.

Firstly I think it is fantastic that Ramon and Veronica (Dad and Mum) still have their original family portrait on the wall after so many years. It is obviously a treasured piece in their family and is a significant part of their history.  This is something I try to tell families when they are deciding on what to purchase.  How much better is it to have your art work up on your wall, so that the relationships you all share can be appreciated daily than having just having digital files that may sit on your computer never to be looked at?

Secondly, what a great idea to have both family portraits side by side on the wall as a reminder of how your family has grown and matured over the years.

It is always a fun challenge photographing family groups with a lot of members. The key is to take control and give very clear instructions, add one member at a time to the set and then once everyone is in the frame fine tune the position and pose of each member one at a time. Sounds easy? On occasions you may end up with a child who likes to throw a spanner amongst the works and not want to cooperate. When this happens it’s quite amusing watching all the prep work you did with the adults earlier on fall by the wayside. But hey that’s all part of the fun. The key is being patient.

On this particular occasion, Mya who is two, was having one of those “I’m not getting out of bed for anything less than ten thousand dollars” days. Thankfully Mya and I go way back…I photographed her as a newborn, so it wasn’t long before she was playing her part. You can see her images from her newborn photography session here.

Olivia who is six, shares a wonderful connection with her cousin. From what I saw Mya is always looking up to her and Olivia is very tolerant even when Mya gets a bit boisterous. Olivia loves the camera and loves to pose. I photographed some amazing family portraits of her and her dad. These images really show the relationship the two of them share.

Chris and Olivia

Hats off to the Toro children for giving their parents a wonderful gift that will last a lifetime.

Chris, Veronica and Claudio

Like I said earlier photographing large families can be challenging. I am looking at doing a project that involves creating family portraits of large extended families. The first one will be 18 people at last count. I don’t think there is a lot of work out there that showcases large extended families. Probably one of the reasons for this is that it is too hard to organise. Imagine getting several families together at the one place at the one time! Normally these occasions only happen around holiday periods or significant events like weddings.

But what if it could be done without having everyone there at the same time? It happens all the time in showbiz when high profile people who all have very busy schedules can’t be together at the same time. Imagine how rewarding the  finished piece would be, having so many family member and various generations in the one photo.

Is there anyone out there who is hesitant to get large family group photos done because it all seems to hard? I would love to get some feedback in the comments below of some of your reasons why this may be.

If you would like to discuss having portraits of your children done or even a family portrait session, then contact the studio on 9570 6191 or email us here.

Regards

Warren