Sara & Taylor (Florida Mini-Vacation Part 3of4)

So, my little Florida mini-vacation was winding down. I was sitting on Anna Maria Island Beach that Sunday morning by myself, not wanting to leave, but had to, due to having already committed to doing some portraits of my first cousins oldest girls that evening in my hometown for my Aunt.

Meet Sara and Taylor everybody, they are both like little sisters to me. I wasn't much older than they are now when they were both born (which makes me feel really old by the way). They were over at my grandmothers or their great-grandmothers house a good bit when I was a teenager -- and so was I. Naturally, I saw it as my duty to pick at them in a good-natured way while there. They were a lot of fun then, and still are now. They were good sports for me when it came to photographing them that evening. I had them outside wearing tank tops when it was entirely too cold to be wearing tank tops, I told them to try and not look as cold as they were, and they did a pretty good job of it I think. Don't you?

Click on each image to view it larger.

This is Sara everybody, and this a great shot of her I think. Very pretty. 

And this is Taylor. Beautiful subject. Beautiful location.

The location for these outdoor shots was at Sara's grandparents place on Cherry Lake.  It's a beautiful place that I just kinda happen to love. I'm from Cherry Lake originally.

I deliberately had Taylor not smiling for a lot of the shots of her because I knew she was less than thrilled about still having braces on for the shots. Your subject doesn't have to be smiling to get great shots of them though.

This is my absolute favorite shot I got of Sara that day. She looks adorable in it. It's just her being her. Not sure what Taylor or I said to her to get that laugh out of her, but it worked.

So I ended up in a race with Mother Nature as far as how quickly the sun was setting outside. I ran out of light and knew I already had some great stuff of each of them, but I wanted more. I ask them to come back to my folks place to do some studio type shots. I turned my folks living room into my studio and here is what I got:

One of my favorites of Taylor. Her light hair against the darker background just works.

Another candid shot I got of Sara when she wasn't expecting me to shoot.

This one really needs to be blown up bigger to really appreciate it.  It's beautiful on my monitor when I have it filling the screen.

Great expression here.

This looks like something you might see in a fashion magazine to me,  or as a huge print on the wall at a Abercrombie and Finch store...

...and so do this. 

I think this is my favorite of Taylor I got, I love the expression on her face and overall feel of the shot.

Both this shot and the following one of Taylor got picked because I knew their family would appreciate them. More specifically, I knew my grandmother, who is their great-grandmother, would appreciate them. I gave her prints from this shoot for Christmas this past year.  

Sara looks a lot like her mom here; she's got Tamara Hudson written all over  her face in this one.

I wonder what I said to her to get her to look at me like this?  She looks like she has just about had enough of both me and my camera.

Sara looks great here, she's smiling with her eyes. What does that mean? Well, cover her  mouth up with your hand and you can still she the smile in her eyes. It's very genuine.

Dorks.

This is a great shot of the two of them. They are really close due to having grown up with each other, so it made sense to get a few shots of them together. This is another favorite of mine that I got that day.

 So my thought process behind the shots for those of you into photography was to get some shots of them that their parents, grandparents and great grandparents would love. Something that captured who their 'little girls' were. And then on the flip side, I wanted to get some that were very senior portrait like. Something that would give their peers no choice but to tell them they were beautiful when they saw the shots of them. Give the guys in their life even more reason to crush on them by capturing some of their personality. Mission accomplished I think.

Edit: For those of you interested in how I lit the shots. The outdoor shots were all natural light. I just used a gold reflector to bounce light back into their faces. I was deliberately trying to get a less polished / commercial look to those shots. Don't ask why. It's just something I've been working on recently. I did get the kinda dreamy look I was looking for out of them though. The studio type shots were done with one large octabox at camera left, and a umbrella at camera right a few feet behind them. I shoot portraits with my lighting set like this all the time. It just looks nice to me. It was cramped quarters in my parents living room with all the gear out, but these shots just show that you don't really need a 'studio' to do studio type work. You just gotta make up your mind to do something, figure out a way to do it, and then do it.