I had the pleasure of spending Thanksgiving in Utah with my extended family. It has been so long since all of my siblings and our families have come together that I am not sure when the last time was exactly. I know it has been a very long time in any case. It was so great to spend time together and to catch up. Because of the rarity of the event my Mother wanted to make sure we got some family photographs while everyone was together.
My set up for the large group photograph was a wide angle lens, the Nikon 14-24mm, a single on camera flash with a large bounce reflector, and the camera located on a tripod. The location was the lobby of the church where we had thanksgiving dinner. I don’t recommend shooting portraits with a wide angle lens. It takes way to much editing to get everything looking correctly when you do. Even then there are somethings that still look off. Unfortunately, because of the limited space and the large group, I didn’t have another option to get the photograph other than a wide angle lens.
One of the best things you can do before a photo-shoot is get a bunch of test shots in the location you are shooting to establish what settings you will need for the shots. I unfortunately, *wink, wink*, asked my boys to “model” for this purpose……I also included in this gallery a shot of me sticking out my tongue at the camera when I knew I wouldn’t get to my place in time and one of my niece Shimmery hiding behind a piece of pie.
After the group shot I got some individual family shots for my Mother. Unfortunately, I didn’t get my own family together for a shot thinking all do it another day….well you know how procrastination goes.
For me the hardest part about portraits is getting the groups in the right positions and poses. Would love to take a course or two on the finer points of taking portraits and group shots.
