Family Portrait Time ..... 

October means the holiday season has begun for many photographers. With billions of digital cameras in everyones purse and pocket it has become increasingly difficult to convince the masses the value of a professional family portrait – So, if you are going to attract potential customers you better have something to offer that is likely to be better than what they can do themselves. Although everybody wants sun, there are a few big advantages to shooting on an overcast day. Number one – you and maybe one other lonely person are the only ones likely to be out, so you have the whole beach to yourself. Secondly, the lack of direct sun is very flattering for skin tones and minimizes distracting shadows. The difficulty was  I had to work twice as hard and twice as fast in order to protect my equipment from the rain. I was constantly wiping the mist off my lens and was  praying the water would not damage my camera or my electronic flash which I had mounted high on a light stand. If there was ever a time to have an assistant, this would have been the time. Fortunately this was a family I had photographed twice before so we were all familiar a comfortable with each other which made my job a lot easier. Even so, an assistant with good people skills and an eye for expressions and composition would have been helpful. I try to keep a certain spontaneity to all my shots which i think is what most people are looking for.