Adapting to a Windy Beach Day - Perdido Key

This blog featured two main challenges during this family session in Perdido Key. It was a windy evening, and we had a toddler who simply would not sit still. My last session with this family was TEN years ago, so saying they have changed in that time would be a serious understatement. They wanted to recreate a family favorite from that earlier session, but a scouting trip before the shoot showed that would be difficult. The area was crowded with people, so while we could have done the original setup, we would have been limited in the directions we could face — and that would have reduced the time available for other poses and locations. With the wind unblocked in that spot, we also risked having hair and clothing blown into distracting positions. The family decided they preferred more time for a variety of photos, so we moved to a location that offered better shelter from the wind.

Our toddler was completely captivated by the beach — shells, waves, and seabirds kept her attention moving in every direction. I was grateful we shoot with memory cards now instead of film, so I set the camera to a high frame rate and shot in bursts of about 20 frames at a time, hoping one or two would catch her smiling and looking at the lens. That strategy paid off. We also had a couple in the session who are expecting a new family member, so this shoot captured not only the changes of the past decade but an exciting change coming soon.