UPDATE 12.10: The final prints have been made and hung in the clients home. I’ll add a photo below of the main print, which ended up being a 70in framed heirloom canvas. The two other scenes were both made as 36in heirloom canvas for other areas of the house.

What a great looking family. And they did a great job as this was no easy task. I just had the privilege of making a portrait of all forty two of them. I won’t say it was easy, but I good a hearty challenge. The planning started well in advance, meeting with Mr & Mrs Chamberlain and then visiting their farm various times to layout and plan the portraits. I even chatted with a few of my mentor photo elders before photo day, discussing options and getting ideas. When the time came, I didn’t even have an assistant, but planning ahead made things come together almost perfectly.

I love a sunset portrait, but this is not a sunset and I still love it. Much of the family was coming from out of town for the weekend and due to schedules sunset simply didn’t happen. We planned for the light we expected to have and made it work using appropriate fill light in the foreground to balance the scene. After processing, the result was this beautiful portrait made round 9:30AM, followed by a few smaller ones to complement it.

I thrilled and thankful to God for the results. Mr & Mrs Chamberlain were in today to make these final choices and I’ve started the printing and framing process, preparing these for their wall. I’m eager (as I’m sure they are) to get these on finished and hung. You can click any image for a larger view. Enjoy… Gav

Nothing to crazy or revolutionary here. We just got some nice portraits and had a little bit of fun. The group did a great job putting up with my crazy ideas. That always makes things easier. There were lots of separate group shots, as well and some big one’s of the whole family.

I did have a bit of a challenge because of the bright sun. In photography light is great, but direct sun is hard because of the shadows and squinting. I did some corrections in Lightroom starting with some of my own effects, and then a bit more in Photoshop to compensate for the harsh light, and give the shots a bit more mood.

Here’s a few of my favorites. You can click any image for a larger view… Gav