We have an entire directory on our website dedicated to helping our clients discover interesting places to hold a portrait session. Sometimes, though, the best place for your portraits is just out your back door. This was what Linc & Lola had in mind this time around. The first time Felipe worked with this family, they kept it close to home, shooting mostly indoors. Since then, they have also visited The Belair Mansion and Johns Hopkins House in Crofton. But this time, with a new-ish baby and three active pre-teen daughters, the planning and people moving was posing a challenge. So, they decided to bring it back home again, focusing their late afternoon session mostly in their backyard among a lot of huge, texture-rich ornamental grass.
Felipe has developed a durable rapport with the three oldest girls, having known them since the youngest was barely a baby. He has an uncanny knack for working with kids around these ages — probably because he’s kind of a big kid himself. He did something interesting with this session; he focused on creating some images of each family member in strict profile in order to create a unique wall display that he knew mom and dad would love. Of course, this involved a lot of play and going off-the-cuff, which resulted in plenty of more natural candid expressions as well.
Once he had spent time with each of the girls individually, he captured some sweet photos of the new addition with her proud parents before breaking out into some thematically consistent individual shots of Linc & Lola on their own. Midway through the session, Felipe turned his attention to some charming group photos of the girls and the whole family, gracefully color-coordinated. Of course, this is a playful family, and Felipe is a playful photographer, so they tried a few different things. All of it worked nicely.
With the sun running out, they decided to finish their session inside the family’s recently renovated home. He started with some more shots of the new baby — with one particularly cute standout of the freshly minted human being peeking out from the big cushion she was laying on. He went with the flow from there, capturing shots of the sisters interacting with each other, Linc playing a round of rock-paper-scissors with one of his daughters, and then Lola with each of her girls individually.
They finished out the session with what is probably the most standout of standout images from the day: The girls, standing on the couch making faces and implying the general chaos that comes from having four young children, while Linc and Lola sit peacefully and unbothered on the floor.
Family portrait sessions don’t have to be one thing or another. They don’t have to be stuffy or formulaic. They don’t necessarily need grandiose gardens or complex studios. What they do need is a family that enjoys one another, and a photographer ready to find the special things that make them unique. Linc & Lola’s family is a great example of that family, and Felipe is a great example of that photographer.
