Dreamy Natural Light Family Photography

My dream of therapeutic photography can only be reached if I grow and learn to use all kinds of lighting. My achilles heel is natural light photography.

I’m quite comfortable in the studio and have been working to create dreamy natural light photography. We had a new family come to the farm for portraits. They have a delightful three month old boy who was a joy to photograph. All images were shot with the Canon 5D Mark iii and the 135mm f/2L USM lens. All images were shot manually between f/2 and f/3, shutter speed adjusted for exposure. All images edited in Lightroom, the watermark is a paintbrush I created in Photoshop.

Light was natural. It was middle of the day but I knew I had enough open shade to eliminate harsh sunlight shadows. At one point the clouds moved from in front of the sun and that’s what gave the glow to the series where the tree trunks look misty in the background. I have to admit, the magic of this series is the photogenic family and the beautiful farm.

Chris, the daddy, is a friend of mine from high school in Germany. Many, many, many moons ago. (I would have added more, but you get the picture.) Seeing him turn to jelly when baby talking, playing and making his son laugh is pretty cool. Baby’s mommy is Danielle and she is the cliche of gorgeous inside and out. It was a treat seeing them interact and so much fun to photograph. These two are amazing parents and their little chunky monkey is proof.