The summer is such a great time of year for portraits. I like to schedule them in the morning or early evening. The morning offers cooler temperatures and an August date means the gardens are lush and green, and flowers are in full bloom. Beth and Craig hadn’t done a portrait in years and wanted to capture their family a few weeks before their oldest daughter left for her freshman year of college in upstate New York.
Looking for ideas, I put them in a tree! Well, they stood on the ground actually, but it looks like they might have had to climb up. The tree offered ‘edges’ for my frame that focused the viewer to look at their faces. Next, I carried a living room chair outside and placed it in a corner of the backyard, where I could use the overhanging branches to darken the edges, so that the lightest part was again on their faces.
Just before leaving, I asked Beth and Craig to come together for one last photograph.
The photographs are AMAZING, Phil captured our spirits! The portraits are EXCELLENT! Phil has a wonderful sense of photography and, just as important, he has a real sense of who we are. I feel like he knew my family after the first 5 minutes!
Beth Wilensky, Montclair
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