My Christmas Card Outtakes post from a few weeks ago talked about the joys of shooting a family portrait for our Christmas card, and showed a few of the more comical outtakes I captured that day. As promised, this is the family portrait that we ended up using on our Christmas card.
We went to Heron Creek Forest Preserve, and went straight to one of my favorite spots to shoot portraits. A downed tree trunk, makes for a good makeshift bench, or a prop to lean on, while a number of trees and shrubbery(!) surrounding it make for a nice background. After shooting some portraits of the kids, the nice late-morning sun disappeared behind a blanket of clouds. This made getting a good exposure a little more difficult, but all things considered, I am fairly pleased with the outcome. Especially since it was shot using a remote trigger, without anyone behind the camera to keep the kiddos attention directed at the lens. I consider it a small victory that my 4-year old is actually looking at the camera with a non-goofy smile on his face (or without tears in his eyes, or gazing skyward at a passing airplane/bird), and my 7-month old is gazing in the general direction of the camera.
