What a crazy time of year - family to visit, decorations to hang, presents to buy, joy and stress wrapped up in a green and red package. And for many it is also holiday photo time. My super smart clients hire me to do a holiday photo session in October or November (and yes, we can even squeeze them into December for those procrastinators, of which I am one.) They know they will get some lovely family portraits in the beautiful outdoor settings we enjoy through winter in our southern climate (gotta love it!) Then they can purchase prints and enlargements of their beautiful family and/or little ones to proudly frame and hang in their home and give to family and friends. And most folks like to buy digital negatives (i.e. images on CD) to use for holiday cards, gifts, photo books and more. Its like a two-fer, well, more of a five-fer! Very smart, indeed.
So the family I am featuring in this post was really all about having fun. And why should a photo shoot be drudgery? At my photo shoots, fun is a requirement. As long as we are having fun, we'll get great photos. Don't you think the two are strongly correlated? So we did this shoot at Deepdeene Park in Druid Hills - my clients' choice. Its a hidden little park with a deciduous forest and creek to explore. I love how I get to discover cool new places around my Atlanta/Decatur home that I never even knew existed.
To start the shoot off, I unloaded my equipment and props from the car after meeting the family at the entrance of the park. By the time I had made it from my car back to the entrance where I was setting up our first shot, the kids were 400 ft. away, down the hill, running across the far edge of the huge grassy field. And they were having a ball! I was so glad to see their joy and I could just tell that we would have a great shoot. Their parents corraled them back up the hill and the fun began. As the shoot progressed, the family got more and more comfortable and by the end they were one big pile of laughing bodies! (You'll see what I mean.)
I have edited the images in this post with a beautiful black and white treatment called Velvet Ash. Actually, its not true black and white as there is some color added. I simply love black and white processing and sometimes an image just begs me to make it b&w, as these did. However, my clients usually prefer color so I always provide them with plenty of those.
Here are a few color images from this session. I'll let you decide which you prefer.
Decatur | Atlanta | GA | Holiday | Portrait | Photography
