My friend and client and fellow photographer, Jessica Brownell, put together a group of her closest and oldest friends for a portrait session.  We spend an hour in the streets of Shreveport, Louisiana.  I lead the way and the girls laughed and chatted and told a million inside jokes.  A good time was had by all.  Here are my favorites shots of the group.

Photography by Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Location: Shreveport, Louisiana.

Slideshow Music: Mindy Gledhill, courtesy of Triple Scoop Music.

The Smith family portrait was taken at the Norton Art Museum in Shreveport, Louisiana.  While dad is deployed, the rest of the family did a portrait session as a surprise for him.  We had a lot of fun, the kids were great and I was very pleased with the way the photos turned out.  Here are some of my favorites.

This is the shot I would want if I were gone from my girls for a long time.

This guy reminds me of my son, they could be brothers.  I was taking portraits of him and then I started looking around him at all the foliage and thought, how beautiful that mess of greenery is back there, so I recomposed to emphasis the background more.

I can’t get over how cute the youngest is with he little bun on her head…  such a cutie.

This one could be used as a lifestyle shot in a magazine.  I love it.

If they were my kids, this would be a huge canvas print on my living room wall.  But they are not my kids, so I think my wife would find it strange if I print and hang this in my living room.

This shot is just cherubic.  I love everything about it and she is an absolute doll.

Photography by Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Location: Shreveport, Louisiana.

Slideshow Music: Mindy Gledhill, courtesy of Triple Scoop Music.

The Brownell family portraits were taken in Shreveport, Louisiana.  I have photographed the Brownell family a number of times, so I get to watch the kids grow up.  It is interesting to see them grow up in size, but a lot of their mannerisms stay the same.  I can now predict what they are going to do and what kind of look I am going to get out of them.  Here are my favorite images from the portrait session.

Normally, I don’t put the “family portrait” into my favorites.  I take them, but they are not the most interesting because they are not real… but I mention this one because of the dog. I did a lot of work for PetSmart earlier in my career and perfected my animal noises.  The great thing about dogs is that they don’t care about visual stimuli, its sounds that grab their attention,so I can stay behind my camera and just make cat noises and the dog will be the most attentive subject in the portrait.

And of course everyone needs the hero shot of their dog.

I love this shot.  He’s got this diabolical posture and look as though he’s hatched some brilliant scheme to take over the world.

Give children a chance and they will just run.  I personally prefer to sleep.  That seems to be one of the major differences between me and children.  They run, I don’t.

OK, I love this series, mostly because it is what I expect out of the little one.  Last year, we got this same shot with both kids in superman outfits.  We didn’t have to tell him to do this, I can just assume that if I have big brother stand still, and them blow a few bubbles, his little brother will run back and forth, in and out of the frame gleefully chasing bubbles.  I think it is hilarious to see in still images.

And what is it about bubbles that bring a child pure joy?

This has to be the funniest shot of the session.  He is using all the lung power he has.  He’s serious about making some major bubbles.

Family Portrait Session Details:

Photography by Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Location: Shreveport, Louisiana.

Slideshow Music: Mindy Gledhill, courtesy of Triple Scoop Music.

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

A Trip to the Zoo from Jared Platt on Vimeo.

I spent the day at the Phoenix Zoo with Freeman and his friends and family. We were able to see behind the scenes a little and even feed the animals. It was a fun day.

Photography by: Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Music by: Nancy Falkow – I Wish You Love, Courtesy of Triple Scoop Music.