A Summer Evening on Campus

For the location photographer, the UNM campus is an Albuquerque treasure.  There are rolling green hills, areas of full shade, a pond complete with small footbridge and waterfall, and gorgeous, lush foliage everywhere.  In the summer, it's a very accessible spot for taking family portraits.  And kids love it!

One evening this summer I took family portraits for a client there.  I love shooting in places where there's very diverse scenery and plenty of space for us to spread out and let the kids run around.  UNM has that.  For this shoot, the kids bee-lined for the duck pond upon arrival.  We let them run around, and got some great shots of them chasing each other.  I love this one of the little brother chasing his older sister.  Such is the life of little brothers!  I shot this two ways: one where the focus is on him, one with the focus on her.   The client ordered both.

On shoots, I like to let the kids lead the way, because then they'll focus on the place, and not on the photographer.  And I usually come away with great shots that I hadn't planned.  Here, they found a turtle pond, and started naming the turtles.  I think they were enjoying the shoot :-)

One of my favorite shots of the afternoon was of the little boy wandering off to explore on his own.  With my own children, I'll often see them doing something that makes me close my eyes and mentally chant "remember this. remember this."  This image felt like one of those memories to me, and so I chose post-processing that matched that feeling: hazy, with lost details, but the essence of the image still intact.

Eventually, kids start to wear out, and it's time to wrap it up.  That's when I like to grab the candid family photos.  The kids are usually ready to rest and have a snuggle with their parents.  And as a parent, I believe the most precious portraits you have are those of your babies interacting with you.  Those are the images you willingly pay a photographer to take.  They're special, they're true to life, and they're impossible to capture without a 3rd party taking the shot.  So here are my two favorites from the end of the session. I hope you enjoyed this beautiful family!