Nathan is a Senior at Hamilton High School in Chandler, Arizona.  We made the drive to Queen Creek to take advantage of an old abandoned warehouse and some farmland for his senior portraits.  I keep asking myself why photographers like old broken things and the best thing I can come up with is that we love texture.  I think I also have an interest in the history of an object or a location.

I love the drama on this shot.  No lights, just one large door opening up to a large bay with indirect light filtering through.  There is a lot of volume in the image.

Softer light as we headed out into the bay, which was perfect to capture this genuine smile.

I thought the guitar shots needed a little funkification, so I went for a slight cross process look.  I think it worked well.

Needless to say, this lone tree was calling to me as we shot.

I love the warmth of this sunset.  It just feels like the world is on fire.  And Nathan… doesn’t care…

Photography by Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Location: Queen Creek, Arizona

Slideshow Music: Roy Ashen, “What Can I Say” Courtesy of Triple Scoop Music

Tumbleweed Park in Chandler, Arizona makes a great setting for family and children’s portraits.  It’s a big park with lots of options.  One of my favorite areas at the park is the old farm where they hold the Ostrich Festival each year.  This is where we shot the Basha family portrait.  The Basha boys are good looking kids and quite expressive, so I enjoyed making their portraits.

I always hope for clouds, but in Phoenix, Arizona, serious cloud cover doesn’t happen all that often.  So in this case, I had to pull out the off camera flash on a Lowell light stand with the TT1 and TT5 Pocket Wizard set which allows me to fire my flash manually in high speed sync mode.  This means I can match the background ambient light with my fill flash at high shutter speeds.  Otherwise this first shot would have been either over exposed in the back ground or the family would be severely underexposed.  The Pocket Wizards have their challenges in their communication range, but they are invaluable to me in challenging lighting circumstances.

Of course, shooting in the open shade is always my favorite way to photograph.  No off camera light needed, just pure beautiful north light.

This is my favorite photo of the day.  He’s wearing a great shirt for the shot and the texture is fantastic.  We found an old apple box near this wood pile and after checking for scorpions and black widows, we let the little man play in around and on the box.  He was quite the ham though and this little pose was perfect.

Children’s Portrait Photography Information

Photography by Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Slideshow Music by Mindy Gledhill, courtesy of Triple Scoop Music
Location: Tumbleweed Park, Chandler, Arizona

Camera: Canon, Mark IV, 70-200 2.8 IS Lens

The Scottsdale Railroad Park is a great place to photograph children.  They hardly know that the photographer is there, which is perfect for my style of children’s photography.  I prefer them to be busy and having fun and these two twins were very busy and having lots of fun.  Here are a few of my favorite images from the child-life portrait session.

It’s all about the leggings!

Their mother works for Wells Fargo, so this stage coach was a perfect fit.

I love the sense of height here.  I seems like the kids are making an incredible leap here.  And who can resist a carousel in the back ground.  Although, you will note that when you do have a carousel in the background, you must shoot at a wide aperture, otherwise, the background would be far to cluttered and would compete with the kids in the foreground far more.

This next set reminds me of a Norman Rockwell painting.

I had to include this shot.  This was toward the end of the session and the little boy was being a bit challanging and there was this little moment between father and son.  If I were to make one of those one word motivational posters out of this, it would be titled: FRUSTRATION.  I thought it was a perfect little story of its own.

Now for my favorite part.  Ice-Cream!  There is a little ice-cream shop there at the park, so we went in and got a few cones.  Ice-cream equals joy!

Photography Session Information: Children’s Portraits

Photography by Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Location: Scottsdale Railroad Park, Scottsdale, Arizona