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Family portraits

Legacy portraits of families in studio or on location in parks or homes.

Why people didn’t smile in olden days.

2024-05-03T16:59:30-04:00April 27th, 2020|art photography, Daguerreotype, Family portraits, fine-art photography, History of photography|

As I sit around at home during this quiet time, I got to thinking about why people didn't smile in old photos. In the old days, cameras were slow and a single exposure would be several seconds long. If anyone moved, the photograph would be blurry, so as a result, everyone had to stay very still. This resulted in portraits having everyone in an unnaturally stiff pose, and it's why we think of people in [...]

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BEHIND THE SCENES at a headshot session

2024-05-03T16:59:43-04:00November 16th, 2019|Corporate photography, creative, Family portraits, Headshots, Montclair, Phil Cantor, Photography|

Had a wonderful headshot portrait session with Kevin. (Why do you need a headshot???? Click here!) This is probably my favorite lighting set up for business headshots. Notice the small light behind his head, this is what’s known as the rim light, or edge light. It provides a beautiful outline around his figure allowing him to “pop” from the darker background and giving a much stronger shape to his form. Need a business or family [...]

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The Stars of the Show

2024-05-03T16:59:52-04:00February 28th, 2019|Essex County, Family portraits, Montclair, New Jersey, North Jersey, Northern New Jersey, Phil Cantor, Photography, portraits, Studio|

The Ngeyesan family from Bloomfield, New Jersey have been regular clients as I document their growing family each year. They last were in to commemorate Tracey's pregnancy, and this was the first portrait with the new baby. The kids became the stars of the show: they loved the studio, the lights, the camera, and the directing. They are definitely natural born actors / models. The sheer amount of energy coming from the kids was enough [...]

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A Hole in the Ceiling?

2024-05-03T16:59:52-04:00February 21st, 2019|Essex County, Family portraits, Montclair, New Jersey, North Jersey, Northern New Jersey, Phil Cantor, Photography, portraits, Studio|

The energy that develops during a family portrait can be something really magical. A few weeks ago, the Nee family came in to get portraits taken. The session starts slowly as we get used to each other, but quickly it changed to laughing and having a great time.     It was then that I wanted to do something really fun, something that would push my own creative envelope. I decided to "manufacture"  a portrait [...]

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