I’m starting to grow the family portrait segment of my portfolio, which is a lot of fun. I love working with children, especially ones around the same age as my nephews. This past weekend, Hailey and I photographed the Vannoy family — Kris, Teri, Wiley and Brody. Teri works at Weaver as well, as the Director of Editorial, and she hired me right out of college to be an assistant editor. Hard to believe that was more than seven years ago (versus “over seven years ago” … this blog is written to conform to the AP Style Guide).
I’ve probably now opened myself up to some heavy proof-reading….
We met fairly early on Saturday at their house southwest of Denver and headed to a nearby park. The light was rich and soft, but the wind was blustery. Wiley (pictured above) is one happy kid, and he clearly loves being outside.
Nearby is the beautiful Roxborough State Park, a place of sandstone monoliths, rolling foothills and colorful scrub oak. Its one of the more dramatic convergences of mountains and plains. (Wow…my tourism copy is rusty! I’ve done better…)
Wiley and Brody were really great sports. Sitting still when its super windy and brisk is not easy.
Since I got this new camera system a year ago, I’ve been doing a lot of shooting into early morning light with a 50mm prime lens. It creates an effect that, while it is not for everybody, I personally love it. It’s rich, dream like and backlit colors (like the distant trees) really come to life in a different way.
After a few posed family shots, it was time to reward the boys for their patience. Nearby was a playground, which really brought out the smiles.
Here’s Wiley…
And here’s Brody…
After 30 minutes of chase, sliding down the slide and climbing things like a monkey, we headed back to the Vannoy’s house for a final round of shots on the white backdrop.
We had to move this shoot indoors. I initially tried to set up in the backyard, but their house is really close to the foothills of the Rockies, which is always a windy place. I failed to put two and two together: without proper weights, the white backdrop is more like a sail. It started to fall over, I jumped up to grab it, but it was too late. The paper tore all the way across. Doh!
Fortunately, we had more paper and could set up inside. Through it all, Wiley and Brody were still all smiles. Two hours of a photo shoot is asking a lot of any kid, and these two were champs.
The blog posts may slow for a bit. It’s not for lack of material, but rather Hailey and I are buckling down on the new Tanager Photography website. I can’t wait to share with you all. It’ll focus more on photo essays and be more of a true portfolio site. Hailey was working on some of the flash galleries last night, which can be enlarged to full screen. Needless to say, I’m fired up.
