I love fall and this has been one of my favorite locations to shoot in for about a year, partly because I can have good light for longer than usual and partly because as yet the hordes have not discovered it. This is a wonderful family whom I have known for as long as I can remember. Their youngest son was leaving on a mission four days after these pictures were taken and Saturday Oct. 1, 2011 found us traipsing through the weeds in the dark{ish} at seven am. It was darker than I expected and I was panicking a bit. At the last second I threw my studio lights in the car and when I got there {I like to arrive early and set up} it was pretty darn pitch black and there were mysterious shapes lurking...I admit to being a little apprehensive. I told myself that they were most likely deer and would leave as I got closer, sure enough they were and they did. Curse you Dave Carver for telling me all of your bigfoot stories!!!
You can see here that the sun is coming up over the mountains, the light sure moved fast but we were able to get all that we needed before various members of the family had to rush off to other engagements.
I love this picture. I love his eyes. I always try to take at least one photograph of small children looking up at me because that is the way parents see their children most often and it is a reminder in later years of when they were small. Ironically the family was concerned because this little guy is usually super smiley but he is not a morning person at all. It's still my favorite picture.
This is Joni and she is a sweetheart. I really like this picture of her, I think her wonderful personality shines through.
Some back-story to this session was that the night before was the closing night and cast party for a show that I had been doing at Centerpoint Legacy Theatre. I got home probably around 3-4 am, took a two hour nap and then ran out to photograph this session still in full stage hair and make-up and in my ensemble from the night before...that just makes me laugh.
Here is a link to my facebook business page if you would like to see a few more. :)
https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.10150402810018727.353188.111853783726&type=3
Greetings to the Longhurst family. There is a lot of love here. They like to laugh and be together and you can tell that they are very close.
When I was getting their print order ready I had an eye-opening conversation with Mary (the lovely mom). I've taken shots like the one above a few times before without really stopping to think about why I was doing it. Oh, I know that it holds to the rule of thirds and the added interest of foreground and background elements but I hadn't thought clearly about the emotional content. Mary told me that she had to have a print of this image because it reminded her of how important it is to have a relationship with your spouse outside of your children. Children are important and wonderful but if a marriage isn't strong then the family will suffer. It is so important to take time to just be with your significant other. I was so grateful that she shared that with me and now I lok at this photograph with new eyes. This is only one in a series of shots. Cory and Mary were in the background twirling and dancing and my favorite has a big dip complete with kiss.
The above was the "money" shot for me. As soon as I took it I had to show Mary. I absolutely love the connection between the family members and my favorite part is the daughter leaning her head on daddy's shoulder. This is the one they got printed large for their wall art and I am so very glad that they did.
I wanted to give them a different "look" to chose from for their big family picture so I took them over to the river. This is one of my very favorite locations to shoot at during late fall and it turned out very nice. They had to have a print of this one as well...I don't purposefully try to make it hard to choose. ;)
