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.

To get around this I gave her my holga to play with while I took a few snaps

and this is what I came up with – technically not the best photo but I love it and is one of my favourite images of her – maybe she will take after her dad!

Below is an example of what it is like to photograph her now – the first image is a quick one I snapped when she was playing on my camera bag and I didn’t think she was paying attention.  The second image is just after this when she realises that I am shooting, notice the cheeky smile just before she runs over to check out my handy work on the back of the camera.

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 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.

It is always nice to hear from past wedding clients and see their families grow and capture the next chapter in their lives. We organised an afternoon shoot at their house and were quite fortunate that the sun was out and perfect for the shoot at hand.  The reason we do all our portrait shoots on location or at a park is because the kids are much more relaxed and you can capture their little personalities while they are running around having fun.

Many people are of the opinion that summer is the best time for portraits but I don’t think you can go past Autumn in the morning or afternoon.  You get a softer light that is magic at these times on a nice day as well as the added bonus of the leaves changing colour.  We have a few spots still available for May so if you are intersted call the studio to book in a time.

enjoy!

Now that I have started to settle into life as a dad it is becoming more apparent that it has changed my outlook on life as I was told it would.  I treasure my time away from work more, I now get why dad’s get so emotional at their daughters wedding, I now see first hand what an amazing job mums do and the sacrifices they make and most importantly I see how something so small can totally change your life (for the better if you were wondering!) and outlook on everything.

I started to appreciate the job I have as a wedding photographer more so after my own wedding and I am finding the same thing now with portrait photography.  I get paid to take beautiful snapshots of a family or childs life that will become a memory hanging on their wall that will make them smile each time they walk past it and that is a great feeling.

We don’t have much more wall space to put these photos of Lola up so they might just have to go into the album!

If you want to become a fan of our Facebook page just search for JD Digital Photography