Family Portraits in Stuart, Florida: "We love the outcome!"
This sweet family portrait session took place on the beach just behind their beloved condo in Stuart, Florida. The family lives further south, but for many years have had a condo on the ocean on Hutchinson Island, where the girls have spent countless hours enjoying life on the beach as they grew up.
The goal of this Stuart, Florida portrait session was to capture at least one beautiful family portrait to go above the fireplace in their Boca Raton home. The girls are off to college and starting their careers in other states. This portrait session with your young adult kids is what I call a Celebration Session. This is where we celebrate all the years of parenting as we transition into a different role in our kids’ lives. To me, this is a very important milestone to capture, before anyone new is added to the family. This could be the last core family portrait and it’s worth a celebration! Getting everyone together is only going to become more difficult as the years go by.
For all my portrait sessions on the Treasure Coast, starting with the end in mind helps us to envision ahead of time what we want to create. For example, for this session, because we knew the main portrait was going to hang in the wide space above the fireplace, we knew for sure that this one needed to be in a landscape orientation. I kept this in the back of my mind during the session and made sure the family had several horizontal images to choose from.
“It was a wonderful day,” Tom, husband and dad said. “We enjoyed it very much! It was a little blustery, but we said ‘we're just gonna have fun and do this.’ We love the outcome! Just to be able to stop time was great.”
Most importantly to Tom, as he said, “There is nothing fake about these portraits. They are so comfortable, so relaxed and they really capture each of us and all of us for who we are. This is what I really wanted.”
In addition to portraits of the whole family together, we made sure to capture each individual daughter, the daughters together, mom with the girls, dad with the girls, the couple and of course I captured some in-between moments that really show how much this family enjoys being together.
“There is nothing fake about these portraits. They are so comfortable, so relaxed and they really capture each of us and all of us for who we are. This is what I really wanted.”
It was very important to the parents that I capture the close relationship the sisters share. And they were so happy with the final results! You can see this close relationship in the two sisters portraits shown above. The portraits aren’t only different because one is black and white and the other is color. There are compositional differences and the overall feeling in each image is different. I love them both!
I love the spontaneity of the color beach portrait where the three sisters are walking and talking together. I love their expressions and how effortless and natural they are in front of my camera. I love the soft color we had at the beach that day. It lends a romantic quality. I love their expressions. I love the crashing waves!
On the other hand, I totally love the black-and-white portrait too. I love how casually refined they are and how the wind was blowing their hair just right. I love how the the BW tonality removes any distractions and takes our eye right to their faces and expressions. I love their quiet confidence and their closeness as sisters. I love the contrast of the people against the seagrass.
What's your opinion? Some people just don't enjoy black and white. Other people enjoy both. And some people love the timeless quality that only black and white can give us.
In the end, we didn't have to choose just one image, thankfully! My client chose the framed image as the family portrait above the fireplace and they chose a Folio Box with 20 matted images. All of their beloved images are displayed in their home!
Notice, too, the simple and classic clothing and the timeless framing choices. Twenty years from now, these portraits will still coordinate beautifully with whatever decor they have, with no distractions from trendy clothing or from dated framing.
For 20+ years as a family portrait specialist on Florida’s Treasure Coast, I have been known for relaxed portrait sessions at locations around Stuart, Palm City, Hutchinson Island, Hobe Sound, Fort Pierce, Vero Beach and all areas in between. I am not like most photographers these days because I believe your family deserves to be celebrated each day, as part of your home decor. When you work with me, we will collaborate in creating Fine Art Portraits of your family, which will live on your walls or in a custom-designed album or folio box and be remembered as one of the best investments you have ever made. In addition to creating portraits for families, I create headshots and personal branding images for business use. To learn more, go the the Dultmeier Photography homepage.