Life’s a Beach

12/24/09 – Rebecca Getsfrid – Commercial and Family Portrait Photographer in Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon

Life’s particularly a beach when you’ve got to be up at 10 AM to drive to Seaside, shoot an hour’s worth of photos, then drive back through dark, foggy, icy weather to shoot another session that night.

Both shoots were for family and friends, however (no other way I’d be working on Christmas Eve), so they were definitely worthwhile.

The first was for my grandparent’s anniversary. After seeing some of my new demonstration prints, my grandmother really wanted a nice 8×10 of her and my grandpa together. With them going to the beach every year for Christmas, I decided to follow them out there.

I warmed the AB800 up a bit with a full CTO, and half corrected it in post. I also did a few individual shots of other family members for my grandparents. My favorite is this one of my sister:



Again with the CTO. I dropped the aperture down to 2.8 to get a nice blurred background, which unfortunately causes a bit too much natural light to hit her face. The white balance isn’t perfect, but I’m still happy with the shot. It also blew out a bit of the sky, but when the bokeh’s as rich and creamy as it is with the Pentax 50/1.4, blown out can look super pretty. Particularly when combined with that nice pastel blue.

I’ll load up a few shots from the second shoot after Christmas.