Tip 186: Outdoor family portrait

Next to words, photos conjure a powerful image of reality. I am glad to have captured beautiful memories at my wedding studio photos, Haruka's 100 day photos and Haruka's 1 year old photos.











Yet, another opportunity arose recently. With time on my hands, I volunteered to a budding photographer who wanted to have profile photos for her website. She offered her photo taking services, in return that I granted her permission to use the photos. (Tokyo is not such an expensive city after all.) I thought - its no different from the studios who would also be keeping the negative of the photos and yet charge you for them.











I never had an outdoor family portrait. I didn't know it can be so refreshing and natural. Green and flowers can make any family photos bright and warm. Plus, the photographer had an eye to snap the many photos we liked. I got to know her from online classifieds. Yeap, the power of Internet to bring people together these days. This photographer probably did not want to be in an awkward position seeking volunteers among her friends. Especially in Japan where little requests made would add less complicacy to relationships. On the Internet, one can easily find a good demand and supply match.











I may be bias but I think foreign photographers are more bold to request for good poses from their subjects which makes for better photos. Japanese photographers can be too polite sometimes. Different angles and positions can make a big difference to photos.

That of course also means more time spent which can test one's patience or wakefulness. Glad Haruka was wide awake and in fact, very excited being in a park. In fact, we even went to a sea park with dolphins before the photo shoot. Haruka timed her nap perfectly during the train journey in between. We also tried to ask Haruka to sleep early, telling her there was a dolphin show the next morning, but she only relented to please us by a few minutes earlier than her usual schedule. Hope she appreciates all these photos daddy has put up in the blog. A place where daddy can be remembered, even as children has less attachment to daddies usually. So at my blog, I document the unseen acts and good intentions of daddy.

(Photos show more family shots at Namiki-chuo park, Kanazawa, Yokohama. More in the coming posts).