As we celebrate Memorial Day today, I think of all the military families I met throughout the country as I worked on Future American President. I really enjoyed working with the family pictured below in the District of Columbia, but they are currently stationed out of the country. Today I salute all those who have served and currently serving to keep us safe.
To create this image of the family above, I thought first about the location. I wanted an image that showed Washington D.C. in a manner where it wouldn't dominate the shot. I wanted the children in the photograph to stand out and become the hero of the photograph. For that reason I decided to layer the shot. The main subjects are in the foreground, with the parents behind holding the younger child. To emphasis the daughters I used a Profoto strobe light and balanced the strobe to be just slightly over the daylight reading. For example, if the daylight was reading F16 @ 1/125, I adjusted my strobe to read F.16.5. This way the strobe light is just 1/2 stop over the ambient which helps my main subjects stand out, but keeps the parents within a good exposure as well.
I loved photographing this family and the kids were all great. Watch out for these little girls in the future. One day, one of theem may run the country.
Always Dream Big