This has created some of the most beautiful portraits and I love the thought of these images clients are purchasing owning pride of place in their houses for years to come.  The fact that they aren’t your typical boring family or kids portraits makes them timeless and artistic and because of the emotional connection even more valuable to the family.

2012 we are going to explore this style of photography and invest more time in making it even better.  I think if you aren’t growing and evolving as a person and an artist you are going backwards so it is important to keep evolving my style and moving the business into new directions.

2012 is going to be an exciting time for JD Digital Photography, we are going to be taking less wedding bookings to make way for more boutique portrait sessions.  As far as weddings go we are almost 90% booked out for next year and the portraits have also started booking up quickly early next year so if you are thinking of booking either in don’t leave it too late.

I know this post is primarily about our portraits but I have photographed over 40 amazing weddings this year and I can honestly say I have enjoyed every one of them.  I will hopefully get time to do another blog post on the weddings before the years out to showcase some more images of these amazing couples.

Here is a few images from some recent shoots we have completed over the past couple of months.

Shane & Vanessa were after a family portrait shoot at home but it had to be a specific time as a tree in the front yard with the most beautiful blossom only lasted about a week and that was one of the places where they wanted some nice family shots.  As it turns out the evening we organised the shoot the weather was perfect with a soft setting sun, no wind and the tree if full bloom.

We have heaps of shoots lined up for the school holidays to take advantage of this beautiful time of year – can’t wait!

My daughter Lola is one of the models and is lucky enough to have quite a few Baby Takes A Trip outfits in her ever expanding collection.

Be sure to check out their website ‘Baby Takes A Trip’ and get your orders in early as the stock will run out fast.

Check out some of the images below.

When I am photographing a family or children I try and keep in mind what would someone looking at this in say 20-30yrs think, would it blow them away and still be intriguing to look at, will it still have an emotion attachment or will it be seen as just another photo.  The reason I started to think like this was while waiting for the bride to get ready at a wedding I was admiring an image on the wall of two small children holding hands walking away from the camera to a fountain in the park.  It was done in black & white and it was obvious from the style of clothes they were wearing that it was shot in the early 80′s.   I asked the father of the bride about the image and he said he took that image over 20yrs ago and that it gets more special to him every year.  It was a beautiful image, not because it was light beautifully or the composition was just right but because it had character, spontaneity and showed the connection between the two kids one of which he is about to walk down the aisle.  I imagine that one image will be up on his wall for another 20yrs.

It is amazing that an image can mean that much and bring that much joy to a family and that is exactly what I want to do every time I photograph and wedding or portrait.  Shooting on location allows the kids to have the freedom to run around and be oblivious to the images that are being taken, kids are such free spirits so I just let them be and capture that.

We try and have a bit of fun with our family portraits, bring out their personalities and create images that light up a room, images that our clients are not only happy to hang up but will show off with pride.  Amanda & Mark decided to get the family picture against the old rustic wall blown up as a Metal print (a new product).  This just came in today and I have to say it looks amazing! It will certainly turn heads.

So if you are going to go to the trouble of doing a family portrait session make it fun and choose a location and style that suits your family.  We don’t just take the photos we sit down with our clients and work our what location would work best, what to wear, what time of day etc all to give us the best possible chance to create that perfect portrait or series of portraits for their family.

Call the studio 9733 4854 to organise your family portrait session now, the light this time of year is just magical and perfect for outdoor portraits.

We photograph at parks, peoples houses or locations that have a special meaning to our clients, all of these places add some personality to the images.  People also seem to be more relaxed outdoors than in a studio with big lights directed towards them, especially kids.  They let down their guard running through the park or playing with their toys in the backyard, that’s when you get those special images.

We photographed the Fallon family a few weeks ago and had a ball, I don’t think we would have got any photos little Darcy if it had of been in a studio.  But after a bit of time in the park he let his guard down and we captured some beautiful smiles of him.  The shot below is my favorite from the day, this wouldn’t have the same effect in the studio.