Jacksonville Family Photographer | Birthday on the Beach

Jacksonville Family Photographer

 

Welcome to winter Jacksonville! Brrrr.  Too cold for my taste so I’m spending some time this morning daydreaming about summer and warm humid days on the beach. My happy place!  This session was one of my favorites of the season for a couple of reasons.  For one thing, it challenged me.  I’m used to doing sunset sessions.  I know my location.  I know my light.  I know my flow and exactly how to time all of the shots with regard to the light and the colors of the sky.  It’s all pretty predictable for me.  This session was going to take place at sunrise and at a beach location that I don’t typically shoot at.  I was worried about how to time everything.  Once the sun comes up in the morning it gets really bright really fast on the beach and it makes getting certain shots and angles difficult.  I felt like I was going to have to work really fast to get everything we wanted.  Well, as luck would have it we showed up a bit before sunrise and the parking lot was slammed with cars!  No way did I want to shoot in a spot with hundreds of people, so back in the car we got and south we headed.

I was already nervous about not having enough time before it got too bright, but now I was REALLY nervous.  Little did I know that the clouds had it all planned out perfectly for me.  They speckled the sky just enough to let the gorgeous sunrise shine through, but then they filtered out the sun so that I could keep shooting well past sunrise.  This gave the family time to relax and really start having fun.  Which brings me to the second reason this was one of my favorite sessions. It convinced my that I need to stop offering half family sessions when the family has more than one child or when the kids are over the age of one.  I’ve heard a lot of clients say “I don’t need more than a half or a mini session.  There’s no way my kids will behave for the camera longer than 30 minutes.”  Precisely why you need a full session.  I don’t want your kids to behave for the camera.  I want them to have fun and play and be kids.  Yes, I want to get that shot where everyone’s looking and smiling at the camera, but I can usually get all of those shots pretty quickly.  It’s after all that’s done that the kids (and usually the parents too) relax and everyone really starts to interact.  That’s when the emotion and love can really be seen.  That’s when I get the shots that make my heart happy and feed my creative soul.

2016-10-04_00012016-10-04_00022016-10-04_00032016-10-04_0004Jacksonville Beach Photographer www.808photographyjax.com2016-10-04_00062016-10-04_00072016-10-04_00082016-10-04_0009Jacksonville Beach Photographer www.808photographyjax.com2016-10-04_00112016-10-04_00122016-10-04_00132016-10-04_00142016-10-04_0015

Mary of 8.08 Photography is a Jacksonville family photographer located in Jacksonville, Florida. Mary creates modern classic images of birth, your newborns, and the families that love them. Serving Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra, St. Augstine and surrounding NE Florida communities.