Lately, I’ve been working hard on having a purpose for images that I take during family shoots.  Snapping away without thinking about a final images is easy.  Having the oh, I can crop that later in photoshop attitude is taking the easy route.  Being intentional is a lot more difficult.  

By the end of a family session, I am mentally exhausted.  Not only have I directed a family, usually with young children into each series, but I have also maintained an impeccably high level of happiness, interaction, and general sense that I have everything under control.  This is in addition to remembering to change settings, ISO, shutter speed and aperture depending on where we are in the sun or shade.  Sometimes I change my lens during a particular “pose” to get a different look.  If I didn’t come home to two children and a husband, I would most certainly nap after every session.  

This past Saturday, I had a shoot with a family who said they wanted mostly candid pictures.  During the session, I tried to be intentional about each image I snapped.  I tried to capture the interaction of the family members and portray that through my lens.  Although we still “created the candid moments”, it was fun having a more laid back feel to the session.  

Also, please forgive the fuzziness that the images may have.  I’m working on getting the kinks out of uploading my images to the blog, and for right now, I haven’t figured out how to get them as sharp as they truly are in my blog posts!