Had a GREAT session with Jessica from Model Mayhem. This sixteen-year-old has a promising future as a model or actress. This was her first “real” photo shoot, and she was a complete natural. She was the easiest model I’ve worked with thus far - very quick and spontaneous posing, required very little direction, and she’s a beautiful girl. We ended up with lots of great images; it was hard to narrow them down and pick out my favorites!

My first paid family portrait session - Lupe Laguna found me on Craigslist and we met at the arboretum for portraits of his lovely family of nine (seven in the immediate family and two significant others). It was a fun session - the kids are all (mostly) grown up, so it was a bit easier since there was no baby-wrangling involved. It was a bit cold and windy, but they didn’t complain and we ended up with some nice images.

This was my second session with the Pearsons, and it was lots of fun, just like the first one. My goal was to move things along quickly, since I knew that the little ones would probably be getting cold pretty quickly.

Family portraits are challenging! It’s hard to get a single photo where everyone is looking at the camera and smiling. Since it’s so tough to get the baby to look at the camera, everyone is trying to get that to happen, and then when he DOES look, they’re looking at HIM. But still, I ended up with quite a few usable images, a lot more than I expected I would, so I was happy with that.

The only thing I would have done differently was to get them more in the sun (as back/rimlight), but since I had a second session already scheduled, we started shooting at 1:30, so the sun was still pretty high.

Second session of the day: my first shoot with a model from Model Mayhem, and it was a blast. The back to back sessions made for a long day, and it was COLD, but fun.

I was a bit nervous, since this was my first time shooting with a stranger, but it went well. Stefanie was easy to work with, and Carrie came along as an assistant, which took some of the conversational pressure off of me (not much, but a bit…)

Lessons Learned/Areas for Improvement

• Prepare for the weather! I got pretty cold while waiting for Stefanie to arrive.
• Setting up beforehand is really useful. Since I had lots of time between the two sessions, I was fully set up when Stefanie arrived and we were shooting within five minutes of her arrival.
• Try some new things - I think I need to start trying to be a bit more creative. When I’m under pressure, I revert to the tried-and-true, and I need to push myself a bit more. After I get the “safe” shots, I should try some more creative/risky stuff.