The Importance Of Photographing Your Loved Ones

"The Portrait I do best is of the person I know best"

-Nadar

(By the way if you are in portrait photography and you don't know who Nadar is....you have some research to do)

 A photograph is a memory.

When I photograph a family, I know I am capturing a moment in their lives.

I am capturing a moment that my clients will go back and look at years down the road.

They will giggle at mom's glasses, and their outfits that are way out of style.

A photograph is something that is cherished for years to come, and as a part time portrait photographer I am constantly giving so many families treasures like these, but I often forget to photograph my own family.

I get so worn out from photographing, and editing my clients pictures that it is sometimes a struggle to get my camera out to photograph my children and husband.

It is so important that we differentiate between our clients and our family, and that we see the importance of loving our loved ones from behind the lens.

We need and deserve the memories too.

Natural Light & Low Light Mood

I LOVE NATURAL LIGHT.

Let's set the record straight.

I only use artificial light if it is one of two things:

1. A last resort 

2. Going for a specific look that requires it

To me natural light creates one thing

Mood

And really that and emotion are what I really try to create in my images.

I don't want people to just look at my images and think "Oh that's a nice picture"

I want them to feel something.

I want them to smell the wet fall leaves, or the open grassy field.

I want them to hear the wind as it rushes past their ears, or the sweet snoring baby.

I want my images to evoke emotion, and the way I can do that is to use what natural light has to offer.

Lately I have been trying my hand at low light imaging in natural light.

I've always loved the way my favorite photographers are able to take advantage of a low light situation and make their photographs a beautiful moment.

This afternoon when both kids were asleep (I KNOW RIGHT!?), I went upstairs and everything was quiet.

Ahhhh

I went to check on my sweet daughter, and the door was just cracked slightly.

I saw her mouth open because her binky had fallen out.

Her chubby little wrists lie on either side of her tiny little body.

I could hear her sweet little baby breaths go in and out, and I knew I had to grab my camera.

I decided this would be a great opportunity to test out some low light photography techniques. 

I took 2 sets of images.

The first was at a higher ISO making up for the lack of light

I still got the look I wanted, but I wasn't sure about the mood

so I took my second set of images where I lowered the ISO significantly

and got this look...

Just a much softer look.

Both have pros and cons, but it's fun to only rely on the light you're given.