Confession: I hated beach sessions.
Living in San Diego is beautiful and one of the things many photographers run into is the fact that most families want a beach session. These sessions are interesting and have the potential for complete disaster. Mostly because shooting kids running around in the middle of the day means shadows galore and constantly changing settings. I’m not say that your photos are going to come out bad, but it means your photographer has to focus a lot more on what their doing with their camera settings than what they are doing with interaction. So in turn, I never wanted to shoot beach sessions, that was, until people trusted me with time. If you want a beach session the only time to go is about an hour after sunrise. No ifs, ands or buts about it. Sunset is pretty and has nice light but the beach is still crawling with people at that time. It’s so hard for people to feel comfortable around that many people. Sunrise, people don’t want to be on the beach that early, and if they are, they’re usually working out and don’t stay in that area for long. If you’re approached for a beach session, stand your ground on timing. It will only mean more amazing photos for your clients and they’ll realize waking up two hours early was a small price to pay.
So, it was no different with this family session. When they asked about time and said, what about 7am? My heart burst in happiness. And thus the most easily lit family session was born.
