Photo Minute...Outdoor Portraits

Photo of the Week Shot with a Canon 80D (free hold with wrist strap) Aperture f/8.0 - ISO AUTO - Shutter 1/600 - Focal Length 100/1

This photo was captured in a series of about 75 shots. The pier in the background with the sunrise and surfers in and out of the water afforded me only about 15-20 minutes to capture this short series of portraits to tell a story of my son's first time ever seeing the ocean. The contrast was simply amazing. There is very minimal photo editing that went with this session is is a raw capture of light.

Note: Always capture those "first" moments. This simple portrait session was of my son and his first time seeing the Pacific Ocean. He was in love with the water immediately. Sunrise was a dynamic time for him to watch the early morning surfer's and how light plays on the waves.

This session was impromptu. We were in Southern California for our Thanksgiving and taking my little man to Disneyland for the first time. When we lived in the Central Valley in California when I was a child, we always made a yearly or bi-yearly trip to SoCal to Disneyland as part of my birthday and Christmas gift. I wanted to share the wonder with my little man for a holiday season.

My personal friend, and travel coordinator for Disney, Amy Landrus, helped set up a night before on the beach so that he could see the ocean too! My mom and I decided to take Toby down to the water at sunrise while the surfers were getting ready.

What I thought would be uneventful and just a walk to the water and back to the room turned into a walk down the beach and bright eyes discovering something new! In those 15-20 minutes on the water's edge he was a perfect dynamic model for me.

So...budding photographer's always have camera in hand because some of those moments that are quick are some of the best raw, dynamic photos you will ever capture. I have found the less I plan a photo shoot opportunity, the more likely I am to capture an emotion that is present at the time to keep with me always.

It has been said that you capture a soul with a camera. Make sure that soul is worth capturing to remind you of that moment finitely in a perfect way.

List: Canon 80D, 32GB SD card, 18-135mm lens, lens hood...that's it for this simple off-the-cuff shoot

Remember to play with your settings. Be dynamic with your foreground and your background. Your subject is the focal point but create a canvas that is different and your subject does not always have to be FRONT and CENTER to be the focal point. Your subject doesn't have to even be fully definitive. An artist can create an emotion in a photograph just like that with a paint brush. Be dynamic in your presentation of the subject to make the photo that more memorable.

I prefer to use Adobe Creative Cloud Photoshop, but Adobe Lightroom is another great application for quick touch ups and such to your photos! I have not included the editing process on this post simply because this session required little to no editing. I just cropped and maybe adjusted a few levels and that is all! Pure capture of light via lens.

Questions? Comments?

Or share your favorite travel location to photograph with the Frontier!