I have a confession to make: three generations, a sunny day, a lot of energy, and the dream of a big group shot is one of my biggest fears as a photographer.
This was my first time photographing such a large group of people with more adults than kids. Group portraits has been one of my weaknesses, as after the fact I look at things like shutter speed and blurring motion due to an open aperture, and I realize small mistakes I should have considered ahead of time. Practice definitely makes perfect in this case, but since I have had two more big family shoots since then, I now feel like I’ve got a better handle on all the nuances of portraiture. Man, is it harder than lifestyle photography!
This is more my style.
I think that when I set a group of people in one spot and I stand across from them and yell, “Smile!”, I make myself nervous because it’s a true “portrait” and that implies a level of professionalism that I subconsciously fear I lack. I don’t think that’s true anymore–my logical brain tells me that I am good enough to take photos of people standing in a group–but my emotion warns me not to mess up! And somehow, I often still do.
I’m not trying to sell myself short–it wouldn’t ridiculous of me not to think that I have strong points and weak points–and I am pretty sure I can tackle most photographic situations that my camera can handle nowadays.
For example, having to deal with these boys who wanted nothing more than to climb this fence at ten o’clock in the morning in full sun was a lot more fun to me than situating a group of adults into what will later be considered a good group shot. To most people, that is insane. Adults take direction. Adults stand still. But adults have high expectations and know what they want. Kids just want to have fun and are happy to be bribed along the way. Somehow I do better with those kinds of expectations.
But I am nothing if not a perfectionist, and the fact that I am more uncomfortable in this area makes me determined to go out there and take as many group shots as I can. I even forced my extended family to pose as guinea pigs a few weeks ago. This isn’t false modesty or me fishing for compliments–it’s me calling myself out publicly to improve upon one facet in my photography. And I don’t think it’s a bad thing to acknowledge one’s own faults and try to improve upon them. Maybe from a marketing standpoint I should only build myself up and never show my flaws, but this is my blog, and my place to be real. I’m more comfortable taking photos like these–
–and I know they’re damn good ones–which is exactly why I need to keep trying different things. So one day I will truly feel like there is nothing photographically I can’t handle. Until then, I’ll be honest in my journey as an artist, and hopefully you’ll respect that nobody’s perfect! This is me saying, This photography thing is a journey, and I’m still learning! But at least I try to get better every day.
