It’s important to photograph your family. Easily said, but hard to do given the busy lifestyles of today’s modern families. Kids grow up fast and change even faster. Before you know it, they’re off to college. I know this first hand. Being a photographer, I understand the importance of documenting family, but it’s tough to be on both sides of the camera. Everyone comments that I must have a million pictures of my family, but that’s not true. And I know it’s a similar story for many others.
Amy and JP, aka, the Prutches are a husband and wife team of photographers. They literally reside 4 blocks from me. We met 10 years ago, after being introduced by our FedEx driver. Our kids go to the same schools and we celebrate most of our holidays together. The most famous of which is our annual 4th of July block party. JP is one of the few people I know with as as much technical knowledge as I have and we talk nearly every day. I call him the other half of my brain. Amy calls me his boyfriend. Needless to say, they’re family.
Lately, I’ve been wanting to explore a new direction in my work. My current style is cinematic, accomplished with the compression and environmental isolation of my beloved 70-200 telephoto lens. I like the storytelling aspect of wide angle lenses, but they have an inherent depth of field, meaning everything is in focus even wide open. Canon has a couple of wide angle lenses which have a very wide aperture. This would give me a shallow depth of field. In short, this means I could control my plane of focus and make things in the background dreamy and soft as I do with my longer lenses. I contacted Canon and had them send me two lenses for evaluation. The Canon 24mm f1.4 and the 35mm f1.4.
It just happened that the Prutches invited our family to Long Beach, Washington for a weekend getaway. We have endeared this coming together of our families as “KepPrutch” time. I asked if they were willing to let me photograph their family and they graciously agreed. Our mutual friend, David Williams from Australia, has made it his mission to encourage photographers to document each other’s families. Pay it forward. I know it’s hard for Amy and JP to get family portraits done since they are BOTH photographers. The hard part for me is that if there’s one thing I know by now about the Prutches, it’s that they are anything but normal. That was the challenge.
I mean, come on. Anyone who names their blog “The Shutter Monkey” has got to be somewhat irreverent. Posing on the beach is not something that authentically captures who they are as a family. Not to lessen their affection for each other, but they are not the type to hold hands and gaze into each other’s eyes. They’d be laughing before I could release the shutter. They were the perfect family to challenge myself with a new style of shooting portraits that are different than what you’d expect to see from a family portrait session at the beach.
My Facebook friends challenged me to illustrate how a wide angle lens could be used effectively in environmental portraiture. I also brought along my beloved Lensbaby for something even more distinctly different. At the end of the day, we had great fun with the Prutches. I was nervous shooting for two other professionals, but pushed myself to do it regardless of the outcome. Long Beach is one of the few beaches in Washington where you can actually drive on the beach. We threw the kids in the back of the Dodge Ram pickup and took off for a day of adventure. The kids never stopped smiling and we all left with more KepPrutch memories.
So tell me. What do you think of this new direction? What do you like or dislike about these images? Do they tell a story? Is this something you’d want for your own family? Does this capture a moment that will be remembered when our kids are parents themselves?
Infectious laughter that girl.
8 comments
Lovely image…
I’m pretty sure that’s not the proper speed limit for your life, though.
Much luck with all of your growing pains… at least you are still growing.
Randy, I have only recently subscribed to your site and this post really spoke to me. As a fairly new photographer (3 years in business), I find myself getting swept away by the whole “hype” of it all. Your statement “I tire of the constant hype and pimping that I see on most blogs. Where is the substance?” struck me. Thank you for sharing…now I have a lot to think about…I’m subscribed and will look forward to your next posts.
Ok I won’t be shy. Not a professional, but I have a passion for making images of people. Your “Way of the Artist” gallery connected with me. I would love to see more of your work that you do for you.
Good to see you posting again.
Riggs
Jamie… thank you my friend! And you are right… I live a life where there are no speed limits! Or so it feels most days. I hope to continue growing the rest of my life and if I’m really lucky, I’ll be able to share that journey with you.
Kim… Thank you for posting! It’s nice to know someone is actually reading my blog and as I stated, even better to know that what I’m trying to say is resonating with you. I hope you continue to speak out and share your thoughts.
Scott… Welcome! Thanks for stepping out into the light on the internet! I will continue to share the work that I do for myself. I’ve been trying to challenge myself to do that more these days. As I shared with you in the blog post, I’m tired of all the hype. Those days will come, it’s the nature of being self-employed. You have to toot your own horn most days, but I hope to make this blog a bit more rounded. Sharing the process, the struggle to be personally inspired while providing a service to clients.
Thanks for your support and for sharing your thoughts!
Randy
Randy,
Nice to see you blogging again, and I say that from a totally selfish point of view. I’m always inspired here and feel like I never leave without something. Thanks for your openness and all the effort this takes to produce. So just keep doing what you are doing here. And if you need to take a break, no problem, I’m sure it will be worth the wait.
Thanks Gary! I appreciate that you find inspiration here. That makes it worth doing and continuing to do. You of all people can appreciate how much time it takes to run a photography business and do things like blogging. Especially when you are trying to create content that more than just marketing hype!
So, what should I do to celebrate the 6th blogging birthday (belated)? Any ideas?
Here you have done it again.
I teared up reading this post.
This… “Sharing the thought process behind the creation. The challenges and how they were handled.” …is exactly what I feel from you when I look at your work. I felt this way before we had our shoot and I especially feel it since.
You’re wonderful.
Thank you Amber! I always enjoy hearing from you and appreciate your continued support of my efforts.
YOU my friend are wonderfully beautiful. Thank you!