Where should we go for our family portraits?

One of the questions that we have to answer when a family calls me for portraits is - where should we go for the pictures? I loved working with this family, and I also love that we did their session at "their" park around the corner from their house.
 

When we started discussing locations, we started out talking about the park near their house, but the mountain view there has houses in front of it except where there are big power lines. (Or so I assumed from a quick check from the parking lot.)


I have lots of ideas for locations - this blog page shows a bunch of places to consider. We discussed these and I loved that she decided to have their whole family decide together.


Their daughter knew that it should be somewhere fun, not too manicured (like the Biopark), and we eventually decided that the best place would really be the park around the corner from their house.


When we walked a ways farther down the path, with a little strategic positioning, the mountain view was perfect. A lesson for me - take a longer walk before I dismiss a good potential location! We had some fun with the frisbee...


which led to cartwheels...


which led to my first whole-family cartwheel portrait! How fun is this?




After some family portraits, it was time for their daughter to play. She had lots of ideas.




I love doing sessions in the park where you actually play! It just makes it better.


We all love her expression in this picture.


We did a few other combinations, which I love,




and even though it was cloudy and we didn't get the purple mountains, the evening light was beautiful.




The whole evening was such a pleasure. I learned that your favorite places might be best for pictures, even if you're not sure the background will be perfect (which actually this turned out to be anyway), but if you have happy memories somewhere, it will make your session more meaningful and FUN.


What did they end up choosing? A wall gallery of canvas wraps, which I love -


and a large collage to frame, among other things.


If this style of photography appeals to you, I'd love to chat with you about a family session for YOUR family. I am a zero pressure kind of person - just give me a call or email, and we can talk!

Or, see this page for other ideas about how to make your portrait session the best that it can be.