Photographing your Family

As a photographer, you can have many subjects in front of your camera throughout your career.  Your clients can range from pet owners to big-name companies that hire you for their next ad campaign.  The fact is, your family is the most important client group of subjects you will ever have.

My pappap is someone that I have always looked up to as a child and now as an adult.  He has supplied an endless amount of stories from his life that he enjoys telling whenever I visit him.  As a child, I grew up seeing him as the airplane pilot and flight instructor he was in his younger years.  His stories of flying important people from here to there was always so interesting to me.  I especially enjoy the stories of how he would fly a long distance to visit with my grandma for a day or two while they were dating while states apart.

Now that I’m older, I see him as all that and more.  He was a man with little but made no complaints.  He knew what he wanted in life, and he went after those dreams.  Many, if not all, of those dreams came true.  But most importantly, I know him as the loving husband and wonderful pappap that he has been throughout the many years.

When I asked him if I could photograph him, he said, “Sure, bring your camera and come on up!”  Little did he know, I’d be bringing more than just my camera.  He was taken back by the amount of gear I brought to take his picture and continued to say, “I remember when all you needed was a camera to take a picture.”  I just laughed and told him how special this was to get to photograph him and, that I wanted to make his portrait look as best as I could.

The drive from PA back to DC was torturous.  Torturous because I knew I had something great sitting on my memory card, and I couldn’t wait to get to work on it.  I took two nights to edit his portrait.  Despite being so excited to share it with you all, I wanted to take my time and edit it as best as possible.  I have to say.  Out of all the photographs I have taken, this ranks in my top three that I am most proud of.

To wrap up, I want to say that I hope this post inspires you to go and photograph a member of your family.  As a photographer, you must look at yourself as someone who documents time and records moments dearest to us.  Sometimes being so wrapped up in this industry can make you forget about those moments and people dearest to us.  Family.