For a personal and casual look, we seated this family under their newly built pergola.

This year make your family portraits something to remember! Why not consider stepping away from the traditional? Don’t be afraid to branch out, to bring a new element to this years holiday season that could possibly become a new tradition for years to come. Make this year’s holiday portrait unique by following these 3 simple steps:

• Include a personal element in the portrait. Instead of photographing in front of the Christmas tree or holiday decorations, opt to move the picture to a favorite family place. For example: the woods in the back of grandpa’s house, the kids’ favorite park, or somewhere where many fond memories have been made.
• Instead of dressing in traditional colors of red and green (although there’s nothing wrong with those colors!), try blue and white for a cool wintery feel or go with a more classic gold and black scheme. While it can be fun to have everyone wear the same outfit, you can try to show off each family member’s individual personality with outfits they’re comfortable in, yet still coordinate the color scheme to portray the visual message that you are a family.
• Have one of the kids write a special message this year or have everyone sign (you can even include the family pet’s paw-print). You can have the message written on a sign and hold it up for the photo, or you could also have it imprinted in it’s original handwriting on your holiday card.

The most important thing to remember is to have fun with it! Taking a family portrait shouldn’t be stressful but just another fun holiday activity for everyone to enjoy, both as you are shooting and once you get the final results!

Portrait of Sara by Brandon Mercer

If you aren’t comfortable with setting your camera up on a tripod and making your own portraits, we’re always glad to help. You can contact Lori Coleman at lori@lightandink.com to set up a portrait session. You’ll need to hurry though, as dates for the holiday season are booking fast!

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This has been a guest post by Sara Tiberio, the newest member to join the Light+Ink team! Sara is a Junior at my alma mater, RIT, and will be an intern here for the next few months. She will be creating more tips and goodies for you, so leave some feedback for her in the comments here. Or, give her a nice warm welcome if you see her around!

Now, I would like to introduce you to the star of the show, Stella! She is four months old, just learned how to roll over, and is cuter than a button. I had the pleasure of recording her baptism, and then a few days later we met up again at her “crib” (sorry couldn’t resist) to make these portraits. In two hours, I witnessed laughter, tears, shyness, playfulness, snuggles and curiosity. All in a days work for a four month old I love that in just a few hours you can capture such a range of emotion.

Congratulations to the new parents, I can’t wait to watch her grow!

If you prefer this type of candid, photojournalistic photography over the traditional studio experience, give me a call at 585.678.1905 to set up a consultation for your family.

Thanks for looking,
Lori

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_6yrsvwoxc]

www.SnapCinemaHD.com

In November 2010, the story ran with seven of my photographs including the front cover. I’m very pleased with the final layout and honored to have been part of this magazine both in print, and online. Click here to view the full E-Zine. The article can be found on pages 8-11. You can also view the pages below.

“First of all – thank you so much for your submission to our photo exhibit. And now for the good news – we’re pleased to let you know that one of your photos has been selected for the exhibit!”

I was very excited to receive this note from Shana at Full Moon Vista: the best cycling shop in Rochester, in my humble opinion. This is their third annual juried exhibit of cycling related photos, and my first time submitting.

I bought my first bike since middle school at their shop last Spring. I enjoyed putting some 300 miles on it throughout the year, most of which I had a camera draped over my shoulder for! This is part of a personal project I have been working on, documenting the scenes I peddle past, as seen from a moving bicycle.

If you are in Rochester on February 4th or 5th, I encourage you to stop down and see the other winning submissions from 7-9:30pm. I’ll be there, enjoying the imagery and refreshments! Full Moon Vista is located at 180 Saint Paul Street, Rochester NY 14604

Chase Tower in Motion, from my bike