Yesterday I went over to my friend Vince’s house to do some family portraits of him and his three children. The Bell clan consists of Vince, his daughters, Dominique and Viniece, and his son, Vince Jr. Vince had mentioned he wanted some photos of his kids to hang through out his house so we set up something up for this weekend. I’ll just say once I got to the house the Bells came to do their thing.
I pretty much brought all my gear to the Bell residence yesterday. To be honest I had no idea where we were going to shoot in the house or what everyone was going to be wearing etc. I got to the house and just walked around downstairs looking at the different rooms trying to find something to work with. I settled on the living room and I began to move furniture around so I can set up my lights with the Westcott Umbrellas. I brought the 60″ and the 45″ umbrellas out. One for the key light and the other for fill.
Once I was all set up we began to shoot the family portraits. We did the obligatory father with the kids photos and then the children by themselves. After that we let the kids shoot by themselves and allowed their personalities to shine through. I’m not one of those photographers who is strict on poses and gives all these directions etc. I want my subjects to have fun and be comfortable. If you’re stiff and feel awkward it will show in the photos. I’ll give the subjects general guidelines or directions but I also give them the freedom to be themselves.
All of Bell children excel in sports, so we took some photos of them with their sporting equipment of choice. If Vince isn’t working at the Firehouse or being Stone Groove, 9 times out of 10 he is shuttling the kids back and forth from practice to practice. Once the kids had their photos taken Vince was eager to step in front of the camera to show them how it’s done. He brought out his Chi-town swagger and you can see it in the photos. All in all, everyone had fun and I think the photos show that.
Dominique, Viniece and Vince
Dominique
Vince Jr.
Viniece
Vince
Stone Groove
