Heirlooms…Masterpieces…Memories

Create your own family treasure

When was the last time you had a professional portrait created? Most children get their photos taken at school once a year, but when was the last time you had your picture taken with the rest of the family or your parents?

Most of our family portraits are casual and comfortable, and we can work in your home, local parks and even the beach! We can also do formal portraits in your home, place of business or outdoors. It’s your choice.

There are many reasons to have a portrait of your family made. Your children may be ready to leave for college, work, or a military career. You may want a nice formal photo of your parents. Nothing makes a more personalized gift than a wall portrait of your own family. A family portrait of everyone together is a great way of keeping them home forever! What could be better than a family group shot of all the generations in your family? Whatever your reason for wanting a family portrait, we will make the experience of your family portrait a pleasurable one.

You can include as many people that fit in your home or business, and an unlimited number of people outdoors. During this time, we will take a variety of pictures for you to choose from. With all family sessions, you have the option to have individual portraits of your children, groups of your children, a portrait of the parents together, grandparents with grandchildre or a true multi generation portrait and any other combinations you desire. We feel that once you have gone through the effort to get everyone together, you should take advantage of it to include every combination we can both come up with.

Portraits can be viewed online within just a few days of the session. Online viewing is the newest way of seeing your portraits, and allows the entire family to view them, no matter where they live. If you do choose to view your portraits online, you can see your portraits in black and white or sepia with just the click of a button.

Be sure to call the studio as soon as you know your family will be together, so we can provide you with a treasured memory for times when everyone cannot be together. If you are traveling to this area and are going to have beach portraits created, call as soon as you set your vacation date so we can get you onto the calendar as soon as possible.

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Preparing for Your Portrait Session

Here are a few tips to help achieve a stress-free, smooth portrait session.

• Parents! Take a break from parenting. Have fun, loosen up, and most important, don’t tell your teen to smile! Let me do that for you so you can relax and enjoy your family, and I can do the rest.

• If you have a special pet that you want to bring, go for it. Remember, pets are people too!

• If you have any special props like a hat, sunglasses, a toy, scarves, an instrument, sports gear, dance costumes, a car, a stuffed animal, beach umbrella etc., make sure to bring them! Remember, the wind blows at the beach, so have plans about what you are going to do with your hair.

• Weather is an important part of any outdoor portrait session, including yours. Rain could present tricky problems durrng a portrait session, and if it does rain on your scheduled session date, we’ll reschedule. If you are unsure, just give me a call the day before or the day of the appointment.

• Each of the four seasons provide different qualities for an outdoor portrait and the one you choose will determine the overall look. Spring gives us full trees, lots of tall grass, beautiful flowers, vibrant colors, warmer weather, and spring showers. Summer brings greens and browns, full trees and luckily, not a lot of rain. Fall provides us with the beautiful rich warm colors of fall, cooler temperatures, and our rainy season. Winter gives us back our green grass but the foliage is bare, which makes a few of my sites unusable during these months.

• When we are in the middle of a public location and there isn’t a restroom for miles, changing clothes can sometimes present challenges. Solution? Wear a bathing suit underneath your clothing! Problem solved!

• Parents and teens don’t always agree on their definition of the perfect portrait. For example, parents like to see lots of smiles and close-ups while teens like more serious expressions and full-lengths. Don’t fret! We can take portraits of each idea you have. Smiles for families + relaxed for teens = everybody happy! Just let me know what you want.

• Remember, Moms! Don’t Stress! That’s my job. I want you to enjoy this time. The main goal here is to have fun and take great portraits of the people you love.

Details regarding Clothing, Grooming, and Timing

Since you do not commission a fine portrait very often, we cannot expect you to know all the elements that affect its creation. Memorable portraits take careful planning and the clothing you choose is very important to your portrait’s success. The following guidlines will help you make important decisions about your portrait.

Clothing Selection

The goal of every fine portrait is to direct the viewer’s attention to the face. Everything else in the portrait (clothing, hair, background, and props) should be secondary to the face. When a face dominates the portrait, you will never tire of it as time goes by. Improperly selected clothing can overpower the face and ruin an otherwise excellent portrait. While it’s our job to choose the proper portrait lighting and pose for you, we must rely on your help in selecting clothing that will create the visual effect you wish to achieve.

Clothing Color

For an outdoor portrait, darker colors like burgundy, navy, purple, brown, denim, evergreen, rust, and black always photograph well. Dark colors are more flattering and slimming to the wearer, while light colors such as beige, tan, peach, pink, white, and yellow can add bulk and mass to the person wearing them. Keeping this in mind, lighter colors work better if a lighter backdrop is chosen such as on the beach. Especially bright colors such as orange or red can ruin a portrait, and bold stripes, checks, plaids, busy prints, and logos never photograph well. While solid colors and denim always work best, small gingham and small simple floral prints are okay too.

Clothing Style

Very simple garments always photograph best. Turtle necks or V-necks are flattering, provided that neither is exaggerated in style. Avoid very wide or particularly deep V-neck garments as well as bulky cowl neck sweaters that completely hide the neck. Long sleeves are essential, since in a portrait, bare arms will overpower the face. Please do not wear short shorts, short skirts, or tight fitting skirts. This makes posing more difficult. Long flowing dresses, jeans, or khakis make a better selection. If feet are to show, make certain that shoes and stockings (preferably both in dark colors) are in keeping with the overall intent of the portrait.

Hair, Makeup, and Glasses

Many young ladies have their hair and makeup professionally done the day of their portrait session, and we highly recommend this. Young men should have their hair cut about one week before the session. Neither young men nor women should radically change their hair style before a portrait session. We cannot hide “five-o-clock shadow,” so make sure you shave beforehand. If you normally wear glasses, plan to wear them for your portrait, or people won’t recognize you. For the nicest possible portraits, it is worth your trouble to borrow a pair of empty frames from your optometrist. Please note that it is impossible to correct lenses which darken in sunlight.

Timing

Please arrive fifteen minutes before your appointment to allow final clothing and hair adjustments. Nicole schedules your outdoor portrait session based on quality of light. Light quality varies with the weather, so your exact time will be determined on the day of the session, based on what the weather (and therefore the light) is doing. Please call before 12:00 noon on the day of your session to confirm. If you feel you are running late, even by just fifteen minutes, we will have to reschedule your appointment.