It was such a pleasure to meet and photograph the Huang & Porembka families while they were out in Arizona for a family vacation recently.
They stayed at the Phoenician Resort & Spa in Phoenix / Scottsdale and took advantage of all being together to capture some large group family portraits. (The only reason we could do the session at the resort was because they were staying there and secured permission from the resort prior.)
While photographing young children can sometimes be a challenge in terms of everyone looking at the camera (especially with young babies such as these 3 month old twins) - we did get lucky with a few -- and one of the twins finally gave me a smile at the very end!
Their portraits turned out great for a handful of reasons, but here are 3 key reasons that helped ensure this large group portrait session was a success::
1) They did not match or wear the exact same colors. Jessica and I worked together prior to the shoot and I gave her several tips about what colors blend well together and to keep patterns to a minimum. I think they did a great job with the blues, corals, blush pinks and whites all working together cohesively.
2) They kept their expectations realistic and understood that we may not get a "perfect" photo with all the children smiling perfectly at the camera. We got pretty close, but the babies were not feeling very smiley that afternoon - until the very end of the session!
3) Because the desert & cacti photos were really important to them, they scheduled their session for the best light of the day - the "sweet light" of that golden hour before sunset and fed the kids some food before the session so they were as happy as possible in that witching hour. And they did great! For photos in the open desert, the lighting is key -- and you want to aim for sunset or sunrise ideally, otherwise everyone will be squinting in the harsh Arizona light.
