Happy Holidays

I ventured out with the family to do a shoot for my brother and sister in law and their new baby. They wanted holiday photos. I felt uncomfortable taking responsibility for anyone’s holiday shoot, even a family member’s, because I’ve never used a strobe before and had no idea how it works in real life. So I was feeling intimidated, stressed, and insecure about it. Further, I just don’t feel like really know how to do portraits in general, and I didn’t want to be the point of failure for somebody’s holiday aspirations. But I did want to tag along and feel free to experiment while someone else carried the day. That’s not how it happened, unfortunately. I just couldn’t work out the communication with my partner and I ended up way more in charge than I’d wanted.

We got to the site and about halfway through the shoot I realized I’d forgotten to put my SD card back into my camera after editing another set of photos the same morning. I had my backup card with me so I was able to continue, but what I’d done up to that point was lost. My brother in law was standing next to me when I realized, so he quietly agreed to help me get everyone to revisit the previous poses and locations “for good measure” and “just in case.” I had wanted the safety of play and experiment with new equipment apart from the pressure of having to carry a holiday shoot, but I’ll talk it out with my partner and we’ll be better at communicating next time.

Anyway, a few good shots came out of it. I won’t post my brother in law’s family photos, but here are a few I took and edited for myself.