Limit Distractions

One key element to getting a good portrait is limiting the amount of distractions. This is for the subjects piece of mind as well as the photographer's. It won’t help at all if your Grandmother is behind the photographer taking pictures while the photographer is trying to put you at ease and get you to “be yourself.” This happened to a photog friend of mine during a recent senior shoot. She didn’t get the look she wanted because the senior was much too uncomfortable with Granny taking pictures and a young child running around playing, not to mention Dad barking orders to wipe off her “fake smile.” 

Posing for the camera doesn’t come naturally for everyone and there can be a certain degree of discomfort associated with someone getting you “at your best.” Add a bunch of distractions to that equation and it very well could be a recipe for photos you won’t be happy with. 

Personally, I don’t mind having a parent nearby and I certainly don’t mind the occasional input they may offer, but I’m focusing on putting the subject at ease to get a good shot. If I’m limited in what I can capture, the results won’t be as good as they could have been. 

The picture above is from a recent senior shoot. Her mom was there, offered suggestions when she thought they were appropriate, but didn’t allow any distractions to get in the way. The result was plenty of great images.

More Senior Pictures at Adriatica

  

 

More examples of McKinney, TX Senior Photography

Info & Pricing

Still extremely busy doing senior sessions. With less than 2 weeks before most local high schools are having graduation, many folks have realised that they need to get something done fairly quick! The above pic is from a recent session at Adiatica. 

Rumors that Adriatica is going to start charging photographers for doing sessions on their property have proved to be untrue. I spoke with Linda Visser, Chief Financial Officer for the Blackard Group, and she verified that there is not a fee for photographers "as long as you stay out of the buildings," meaning that if you wanted to use the interior of a building or an unoccupied space, there would be a fee. No fee for photographing on the grounds. This is good news, since so many properties these days realize that some  photographers actually make money from the use of a picturesque background...so why not grab a piece of it if you can? I tend to steer clear of such places, but if it's what a client really wants, they'll have to pick up that fee.

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Color Works Too

The b&w version of this pic has been part of my portfolio for a while, but I really like the color version because the out of focus areas are much more obvious. Taken at Adriatica.

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Aim For The Eyes

After I shoot I go through the hundreds of pictures I took and pick the ones that jump out, then start the tedious process of narrowing down, editing, re-editing, re-re-editing...

Occasionally I'll go back after the job is done and find one that I overlooked the first time. Sometimes recropping and adjusting the angle can make all the difference in the world.

Such was the case of this picture I took last summer. This was taken in Adriatica at the end of a long day of shooting. Looking at this photo reminded me of another tip I like to give out: focus on the eyes. When you press the shutter half way to lock in your focus, always aim for the eyes. 

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More Portraits from Adriatica

 A couple more from Adriatica in McKinney. These were taken last year, back in the days when my daughter would cooperate anytime I wanted to get a few shots of her. Those days are LONG gone...

Anyway, this is the Northwest corner of the development where there is a long stone wall. I took these with my D80 (also long gone) and added some post-processing later.  

Spot the Adriatic Portrait

The Adriatica (annoying music warning) development in McKinney is quickly becoming the most photographed background for locally made portraits. I'm just as guilty of it as anyone. Go to any photographers web site and the pics taken at Adriatica are easy to spot. The color of the brickwork is the giveaway. There's just so many great spots to get a great photograph and they're still not finished building.

Lately I've been playing around with some of the pictures I've taken out there and trying to make them just a little less recognizable.  The picture above I recropped a little closer to the subject and made black and white. If you had to guess where it was taken you probably could, but at first glance it's a little hard to tell.

But this one is more than obvious. I like it for the composition.

More Tunnel Light

If this pic looks very similar to this one of my daughter, there's a reason.

Alex and his Mom described a picture they wanted me to make and showed me an example of one they had done previously; Alex looking down with the light coming in from the left, background out of focus. I tried photographing Julia in the tunnel to see how it would look before I suggested this to Alex.

I had Alex meet me at 7:00pm at Adriatica to do the shot. I noticed it was starting to get cloudy and could see a storm moving in in the distance. Alex arrived just as the rain started so I figured we might as well see what we can do anyway. The big problem was light. The dark clouds from the storm cut the light to almost 50% of what I was expecting to get.

This is where the 5D Mark II really came in handy. I borrowed a friends 50mm f1.4 and pushed the ISO up to 1600. This was the result. Not bad considering the light was very limited. In the raw image I could see just a little bit of grain when I zoomed in on the picture, but I was able to get rid of most of it using Lightroom, as well as converting the image to black & white.

Tunnel Light

This is a recent shot of my daughter taken at Adriatica. I had her stand at one of the tunnels that go under Virginia Parkway trying to get the effect of directional light.

Brick Ledge

This is from the same session as the last post.

I also fixed my Twitter link. Thanks Michelle!

"Fix your hair, please."

I'm fortunate to have an attractive daughter that when her father says "let's go take some pictures," she's always agreeable.

This was taken in Adriatica last summer.