By Sue Gerard

What better backdrop can you think of for family portraits than a strip along the beautiful Jersey Shore?!?  I know we just had a major hurricane, but the dunes are already bouncing back and the sand still sparkles in the sun!  I made sure I went to some of my favorite shooting spots to see how they fared during the storm and I am happy to report it’s going to be fine!  I love that I live so close to the beach and chose this profession – or was it the other way around and it chose me?  It’s great to have a passion that you can make a living from.  Getting out onto the beach with the sand between my toes, camera in hand and waves at my feet is heaven to me.  Who else can say they get to work at the surf’s edge doing what they love?

I know the economy has been a factor for the last couple of years and paying for family portraits is now considered a luxury expenditure.  But think about all the things you spend money on that provide no residual paybacks.  We spend so much money on food and drinks, on entertainment in and out of the home, on convenience items, etc.  But investing in portrait art for your home isn’t something you should pass up.  It doesn’t have to be done every year…. just every few years so that you continue to capture your family as it grows and grows up!  You need to catch your children while they are babies, when they are missing teeth, as they enter teen years, and as they become young adults.  I would much rather have a nice framed print or gallery wrap canvas of my family hanging in my home than some random print you buy at a store.  My goal is to create art for YOUR home with my portraiture, thereby redefining art for your home.  And there are so many unique ways to display this portrait art in your home these days that have been spawned by the digital revolution.  You have prints, wraps, folios, photo books, mini accordion books, magnets, photo tiles, photo panels, holiday cards, ornaments, collages, DVD slideshows, brag books, pencil sketches and oil paintings!  The list grows and grows.

I try to portray emotion and love within the portrait imagery.  I do many combinations of people within your family.  If it’s just your immediate family then we do the obvious ones of the whole family, the kids together and separate, but then I like to do one parent with the children, or capture moments of interaction down by the water.  I like doing a mixture of posed and candid images so you have a lot to choose from.  These images should tell stories, celebrating family, focusing on relationships within it.  And if we are doing extended families, well then we have many more combinations to have fun with.  Each family unit will get their own session but then we do a big group shot, grandparents with their grown children and with their grandchildren, sibling shots, cousin shots, all the guys, all the girls, whatever you can think of!!  And I love to end a session by doing big groups down by the water jumping up in the air!  Everyone has a lot of fun.

So if you are considering a family portrait session on the beach, there are many things to take into consideration such as time of year, time of day, clothing, etc.  I go over all those details in a phone consultation but here is a general overview.  Best time of year is between late May and late September.  I do shoot before and after that, but for “summer” portraits in summer clothing, it’s best to stick between those times.  Many families look for fall portraits both on the beach and at the park and that is coming up.  Best time of day is 90 minutes prior to sunset.  This is when the sun is low and soft to avoid harsh lighting that causes squinting and shadows.  Clothing is a matter of preference but its best to coordinate colors if not completely match.  By doing so, it allows one to focus on the faces in a portrait vs. being distracted by different colors or designs.  It’s best to wear solid colors to compliment each other and the surrounding environment.  I feel that whites, blues and greens look best for beach portraits.

Once you have your family all dressed and at the beach at the proper time, it’s great to utilize the talents of a professional like myself not only to capture the proper light for the photos, but to help in the posing.  Being able to pose a family and your children is half the battle of taking a good portrait.  And many people use wanting to lose weight as a reason to put off getting portraits done, but I am trained to pose you in the most flattering way I can and try to hide any trouble spots.  What if you gain weight instead of lose it?  Then you would wish you had done it sooner!  So put your worries aside and celebrate your family in portraits.  So many people tell me they want to do it, but never take the time to do it!  Record those moments in time, share your story with portraits, preserve the memories, seize the day!!

Your life and your history is precious and priceless and you need to document it regularly.  I hope to hear from you sometime in the near future to book your family portrait and capture the memories and magic of family for you.  Remember, define your art with portraiture.

For more details, give me a call at 732-899-3049 or visit my website at www.suespointofview.com.

By  Sue Gerard

www.suespointofview.com

The digital revolution has taken over photography.  Now it seems everyone has a digital camera and even more people own digital SLR’s.  So the number of amateurs with great cameras is growing and people are attempting to be their own professional photographer.  And why not?  You get instant gratification.  You know right away whether you captured the image you wanted or not.  But being a photographer means more than owning a good camera.  You must have skill in assessing the light, the environment and the dynamics of your subjects.  You need to have an innate ability to connect with those you are photographing coupled with technical know-how of your camera and equipment.  Here are some reasons why you should hire a professional photographer.

First of all if you want a family portrait, you need someone to take the photograph, right?  But I know many of you are camera shy and therefore only want to capture your children. However, I think it’s important to have a full family portrait.  As a professional photographer, I pay attention to details.  Through my years of experience I have learned how to pose families in ways that flatter everyone.  I can provide session tips and offer advice on clothing to wear.  These are reasons why you should hire a professional photographer.

Now that it’s July, many families want to get portraits taken at the beach.  This is my favorite thing to do!  The beach provides such a beautiful setting for a family portrait.  It has a perfect blend of natural colors from the sand, to the green dunes, to the blue water, and the white caps of crashing waves against the shoreline.  Dress yourselves in coordinating shirts in pastel shades or white with khaki pants and you have yourself a professionally designed portrait waiting to get hung on your walls!  Can’t you just “picture” it??  I like to take some posed portraits as well as candid shots.  Let me show you how to sit with your family in a posed manner, yet relaxed and natural enough to look as though you aren’t posed.  Let me capture your kids looking for shells,  splashing at water’s edge, or running with the waves.  I can illustrate how your family interacts with each other and show your true essence and your personalities.  These are reasons why you should hire a professional photographer.

Love some of the pictures you take, but wish you could make them better?  Professionals have the talent and the tools to enhance your photographs from touching up skin, hiding wrinkles, making colors more vibrant, optimizing lighting, removing distractions in the background, etc,  Wish those fly away hairs were gone?  Consider it done.  Wish your teenager’s acne wasn’t so distracting?  Consider those blemishes gone.  Wish you could open someone’s eyes since everyone else in the photo looks great?  No problem.  Wish you could take a head from one picture and place it in another?  Yep, I can do that too!  (actually way too often than I care to mention!).  These are reasons why you should hire a professional photographer.

Do you want to present your portraits as works of art in your home or showcase a wall-sized portrait over your couch or fireplace?  I have an

assortment of ways to do so.  Custom framing is a common option.  You want to have someone qualified to help you choose a frame and matting that will fit your home décor while simultaneously complimenting the style of your wall portrait.  Canvas gallery wraps are very popular.  Your photograph is bonded through an emulsion process to a textured canvas fabric and stretched over a wooden frame.  This provides a nice contemporary finished look, ready to hang on your wall.  Preparing any portrait for display in your home is best handled by an expert.  These are reasons why you should hire a professional photographer.

One of my most popular products is called a composite.  It is a digital collage where multiple photos are arranged and displayed on one printed surface.  These arrangements require design time and skill to create them in Photoshop.  Creativity and artistry can make an ordinary collage into a work of art. I can also provide other ways to show off a collection of your favorite images such as brag books, press printed coffee-table style photo books, digitally designed lay-flat albums and DVD slide shows set to music.  These are all professional presentations that aren’t readily available to the general public.  These are reasons why you should hire a professional photographer.

Some may wonder why anyone would pay such high prices for a 5X7, 8X10 or an 11X14 if you can get one at a fraction of the cost at your local pharmacy, Costco or even online?  The true cost really lies in the amount of time it takes to produce a professional portrait.  The cost to print may be minimal, but other factors must be considered when determining the value of your portrait. There are consultations, travel time, the session itself, uploading and backing up images, editing, printing proofs, client meetings, editing and enhancing prints for final order, creating any digital products, reviewing order from lab, prepping for delivery, etc.  Studies show that a photographer will spend an average of 13-19 hours on each client!  So please know that we are putting our passion, our heart and our soul into the process of building relationships with you, providing personal customer service, caring for your memories and producing photographic works of art for you.  These are reasons why you should hire a professional photographer.

Have you ever tried to do your own photo session with your children?  I know many moms who try to get a great shot of their kids every year so they can use it for holiday greeting cards.  Isn’t it stressful?  Why do you do that to yourselves? I know my patience is tested when taking pictures of my own kids; I’d rather do someone else’s. Ha!  Let a professional take care of it for you and make your life easier.  Don’t we all try to make our lives easier in various ways?  We hire people to paint our nails, cut our hair, prepare our meals, and clean our houses.  But all those things are temporary.  Why not pay a professional photographer to take your precious pictures for you and alleviate the stress factor?  You are guaranteed to get a great portrait that you can enjoy over and over and over again.  Your nail polish has chipped, your house is messy again and you consumed the meal you paid someone to prepare.  But portraits are a moment in time that live on forever. These are reasons why you should hire a professional photographer.

As demonstrated, there is a great deal of time involved in creating a custom photograph and offering a personal experience for the client.  When working with a studio, you are provided with great service, better choices and a high quality end product.  Professional photographers are dedicated to their craft and are constantly educating themselves so they can be better… for you!  Photography is an emotional business that offers an emotional experience and produces an emotional product.  Your resulting images are heirloom portraits to be treasured for a lifetime.  Do you need any more reasons why you should hire a professional photographer? I think not.

www.suespointofview.com