The Black Family

What does every mother want?  More time with her children  Having a home decorated with family portraits is a great way to give mom what she loves – the chance to see her children every day!  Here are some happy moms with their family portraits from Diana Miller Photography.  One of our favorite sessions is family portrait sessions, because we love being able to provide priceless memories for families and are honored to be able to do so!

 We have been providing families with beautiful, hand-crafted portraits for 20 years now.  Some of you have been coming to us that long.  We actually have some clients that I took baby photos of and now am doing their senior portraits!!  There are also many wonderful brides and grooms that have come back over the years with each child as their family grows. Thank you to ALL of our fantastic clients for your support over the years and HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

-Diana

 P.S. A lot of these were taken with cell phones over the years – so excuse the resolution!!

I know how it is; you want to spruce up the lighting in your portraits but don’t have the bucks to spend on fancy-schmancy gear. Below are some ideas you can try and feel free to add some of your own!

#1 Get an assistant to carry a flash powered light box: place about 3-4m from subject, but at a creative angle, like about head heighth but out of frame off the side. This may be enough to fill in, and avoid the chintzy dime-store flash look. It can be as simple as a stiff cardboard box, lined with foil on the inside, and cover with light-weight fusion material on front. Better yet, 2 light boxes with assistants, and delegate to them the angles and such, just give them some general guide-lines. You could also spiff up the light boxes with your logo. Also the large difusion area is less blinding for subjects -maybe aprox 1m square (100x100cm)

#2 Have an assistant carry a large white reflective surface. This is great for shady areas outdoors -like under a tree, or awning. The asistant catches the sun’s rays, and reflects them softly toward the subject, but at an off-angle -try about 45º from camera-subject line, and about head height. You can use a large 1x2m piece of snow-white poster board, and glue to a styrofoam backing. The styrofoam backing is used in commerical P.O.P. presentations, I recommend about 1″ thick. You can also take advantage of your windshield sun shade, using the gold or silver sides to reflect light into your subject.

#3 One of the easiest things is to use a sturdy monopod. I got the idea observing sports photographers. Typically, with a portrait focal lenth, a monopod will give you an edge of 1-2 stops, or shutter speeds. In most cases that’s enough utilize existing light. They are less awkward than a full tripod, but do have limits. Look for the nicer monopods, such as the manfrotto,with a spring-loaded foot pedal are best to control the lateral pan movement.

#4 Check out those old-fashioned ’60s huge aluminum parabolic strobe flash reflectors! You can also stretch out diffusion film over the front, such as old nylons or white fabric. Throw in some light weight grips and a tripod mount and you’re all set!!!

These are fairly easy ways to achieve superior results. You need to keep trying, experimenting, innovating to get an edge over the competition.

Leslie and Brady had one of the most beautiful and romantic weddings I can remember!  Their gorgeous wedding was held at one of my favorite venues, Wilson Vineyards in Clarksburg, CA.  Wilson is a great place for your wedding because even in the summer, they get the cool delta breezes at night which is like a giant air conditioner turned on! There is also an outside dance floor, patio lights, a party barn, great landscaping, oh and did I mention excellent wine!

Leslie and Brady’s ceremony was perfect at the beautiful outdoor settings at Wilson’s.  I love the brick walkway and parasols!

We took a lot of family photos after the ceremony which is always a lot of fun.  I always recommend to my brides to have these done because it is not too often the whole family is together all dressed up – what a great photo op!

Sadly, it also turned out that Brady’s grandmother passed on not long after the wedding, so they were very thankful to have portrait of her with them.

The wedding party was so much fun to work with.  Everyone had a blast!

We were able to get some beautiful romantic portraits of Leslie and Brady and the lighting was perfect.

The reception was wonderful with excellent food, romantic lighting and we even had time to steal  away to catch the sunset over the vineyard.  I just love the sunsets we capture at Wilson Vineyards!

The reception ended with dancing, including a really unique money dance involving a money ball and chain and crown for the bride.  I wish I got one of those at my wedding!

Below is a sweet note from Leslie after they recieved their wedding photos:

“Hope all is well. Thank you so much for sending the link to our wedding photos! They turned out beautiful, and Brady and I couldn’t be happier. You and your assistant have done such a fabulous job! We will definitely be recommending you to friends and family who are looking for photographers in the area. 

 We’ll be in touch again soon! You’re amazing!!

 Kindest regards,

Leslie Tacdol”

corporate headquarters in San Francisco.  They wanted to show they were in San Francisco as these photos would be used globally.  We decided to use the view from the 22 floor lobby with the TransAmerica building in the background – a well known landmark.  The conference room on that floor was already reserved, so we used a window at the end of a hallway to do these executive portraits.

   The lighting was tricky as the goal was to get a good exposure on the background as well as on our clients.  We also had almost no time to test the lighting as the security guard at the building held us up almost a half hour getting clearance for us to enter.  I guess our big studio lighting case  looked threatening to them.

 Anyway, the end results are what it’s all about and we created some wonderful portraits that definitely makes you think “Executive Portrait in San Francisco”.