The images below of Hunter & Raven taken in the park are fun, artistic and show their personalities, these images will be as relevant and special in 20yrs as they are now if not more so. Unlike some of the posed studio based portraits these show character, freedom and flare that can’t be captured as well in a studio based environment in my humble opinion.
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.
