Tag Archive for: cranberry

Cranberry Baby and Family Portraits

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One of my favorite portraits during a newborn session is a close-up with baby’s eyes wide-open and gazing into the camera. And this sweet girl was ready for her close-up!

newborn close-up

I met this family at their home in Cranberry and one natural spot for a family portrait is on the couch where families tend to gravitate when spending time together. And this precious little one was wide-awake as she studied her adoring family.

newborn and family

I love seeing kisses from big brother or sisters. And this little guy seemed to genuinely want to give his little sister kisses.

kisses from big brother

All smiles here, minus baby girl, who just drifted off into sleep.

the whole family

I’m also a fan of portraits of mamas with their babies. When my littles were newborns, I remember wanting to take selfies with my babies all of the time! I think it must be the excitement of finally getting to hold our babies in our arms after anticipating their arrival for 9 months.

mama and baby

And here’s a full-length capture of this little sweetheart. And I just want to point out that her skin isn’t retouched. When I made the shift to capture my clients more naturally, I made a conscious decision to stop retouching skin. After looking at some of my first son’s newborn portraits and regretting how I smoothed over the sweet imperfections in his skin, I was careful not to make the same mistake with my second son. And since then, I’ve shifted my business goals for creating flawless portraits to capturing genuine images with good lighting and an emphasis on natural beauty.

baby girl full-length portrait

Cranberry Family Portraits

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Family portraits can be tricky especially when multiple families are involved, but this family made it easy and I got to photograph them in their beautiful wooded backyard again so this session was a walk in the park, or more literally, the woods. Ha!

We started with the largest group so I could make sure we achieved their main goal, which was the whole family in one portrait, as part of the family lives overseas so that doesn’t happen very often.

extended family portrait

Then we did smaller groupings of the individual families.

family portrait in woods

With all of the foliage, I brought along some lighting gear, especially to accommodate the extra depth of focus needed for larger groups in low-light. And I love how the light blends with the natural light of the sun, bringing some dimension to the trees in the background and highlighting them from behind.

young family portrait

Here’s a shot with all of the grandchildren.

grandchildren portrait

And this brother and sister were really having fun while their grandma was making them laugh from behind my camera.

siblings portrait

I’m a sister, and my close cousins are both sisters, so sisters portraits are so sweet to me. We have lots of portraits like this one throughout our family.

sisters portrait

And while we were at it, we couldn’t leave out the couples. It’s always nice to remember who we were before becoming parents and take a little stroll down memory lane.

husband and wife portrait

married couple portrait

grandparents portrait

With a little time left in our session after crossing off all of the groupings they wanted for their portraits, we headed down the path to this beautiful lake. It’s so vivid with the setting sun, that I feel like I have to note that it’s not a backdrop or manipulated in Photoshop. This is the real deal, and it is gorgeous!

large family portrait