Where Does The Time Go?

The past 10 days have been a whirlwind of shooting editing and delivering images. From a commercial shoot in Uniontown PA (near Pittsburgh) to a family portrait session this past Saturday; I have spent a lot of time with my camera in front of my eye and nothing makes me happier!  After all, I did get into this business to create images.

I will write more about the commercial shoot in Uniontown shortly but for now I want to focus (no pun intended) on the family shoot I did Saturday. Let me say first and foremost it was a pleasure to shoot the Lehr family and they are a great family. I met Teresa the mother, many years ago before any of the children were born actually, and lost touch with her over the years. The last time I saw her, the oldest girl Tara was 4 or 5 and Teresa just found out she was going to have another child. Well that other child was just one of two more children. Justin has graduated college and is on his way to start his engineering career in Louisiana. Where does the time go?

Teresa and I got back in touch a few months ago via my photography Facebook page and we have been talking on and off since. A couple of weeks ago she mentioned that she liked my work and she needed to get family portraits done as her middle child (who am I kidding, he is a grown man) was moving away soon. We set a date and the shoot was on!

Tara, the eldest, I have known since she was born and I kind of figured that she would be as attractive as her mother and I wasn’t disappointed. She has grown into a very intelligent woman like her mom. The other two, well I had no expectations. I knew and used to work with their father. In fact I was responsible in a roundabout way, for Teresa and Brian meeting. Actually I just let her know there was a job opening where I worked all those years ago and well, the rest is history. So I knew they all came from pretty good stock, two loving parents, strong and independent and an all-around good family.

What I didn’t know was how perfect and photogenic these people were! Wow! Talk about making my job easy; even when these siblings gave that “oh I am getting my picture taken, I better smile” sort of smile, they looked great. All I had to do was set the lighting and create the images, well and get their real smiles. On top of being hospitable, smart, engaging and photogenic, they all have the patience of saints. The location we chose was a local park that used to be called Turks Head Park, a block away from their home. Little did I know the first spot I chose as a backdrop was actually the breeding ground for every mosquito in all of the northeastern United States. If you ever want to attract mosquitoes, expose some skin, sweat a little bit from the warm summer sun and then pop off a few bright flashes. Sure enough you will have a few hundred in a few minutes. Did any one of my 5 subjects complain? Barely a mention; they were all wonderful.

The images here in this article are just a few of the images that we got. Although there was not a skin blemish amongst the 5, I think I did have to retouch a couple of mosquito bites but other than that, this is how beautiful the family is.

While typing this I just got a Facebook Message from the mom, Teresa.

“Thank you Michael for a fun relaxing shoot. I was a ball of nerves and you set me at ease. Also thank you for confirming what I already knew…..My kids are gorgeous outside and in!”

Teresa, No problem, it was my pleasure!