Peddler’s Village Family Portrait Session
I adore shooting in Peddler’s Village in Lahaska, PA, especially for a family portrait session. The area is always so nicely decorated and there are so many different places to shoot within their grounds. The Whitfield Family contacted me for their annual photo session and we immediately decided upon a Peddler’s Village Family Portrait Session. Since it was fall the leaves were the perfect color and the weather was just right for beautiful fall clothing. Their son, Benjamin, had a wonderful time running around Peddler’s Village while his mother and father chased him about. I’ve photographed Benjamin quite a few times and boy oh boy does this kid LOVE to run! I think he may be a track star in high school haha.
Looking for a Peddler’s Village Family Portrait Session? I’ve shot here and at dozens of other locations in the area. Please feel free to email me any time at [email protected]. I will be more than happy to answer any of your questions. For your convenience my full pricing is available here on my blog and on my website. I look forward to hearing from you!
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I tend to photograph my subjects later in the day because I love the late afternoon sun. It’s golden in color, very direct and creates the most beautiful hair light. For this image, all I had to do was place my subjects in front of a beautiful fall tree and ask them to hold their son Benjamin..jpg)
With a family portrait session it is always wise to give your subjects something fun to do together, instead of just asking them to sit and pose for you. Children almost never want to sit in one location for very long so I simply asked The Whitfield family to walk through Peddler’s Village while I snapped away. Having a long lens such as the Canon 70-200 gives you the ability to be quite far away from your subjects, letting them interact naturally. This also gives you ample time to get several good photographs before the family reaches your location..jpg)
Kimberly has the most wonderful smile and you can tell her son Benjamin is the light of her life. Here they are in front of a local toy store. I frequently like to use the surrounding architecture and foliage to my advantage. So by asking them to kneel and relax together I was able to give this shot some bursts of color..jpg)
Since there was so many colorful flags and decorations around Peddler’s Village it was easy to capture the tone of this beautiful fall afternoon. When photographing fast moving children you have to be sure to use a very fast shutter speed, in order to stop any motion. If you don’t your photographs will come out very blurry and you will have unhappy clients..jpg)
Benjamin is such a polite boy. He always waved to other children and said hello as we adventured through Peddler’s Village.
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You only have one shot to get that perfect photo of a child looking directly into your lens. When photographing a family I always make sure to tell my parents and adults to always look at me the entire time they are posing with their child. I’ve figured out through experience that the child will only look up for a split second and I have to catch that shot. If I have my parents looking down at their child, trying to get them to look at me, the moment he looks up, I have parents looking down. This little tip has helped me countless times to capture a perfect family portrait..jpg)
Normally I always shoot my couple with their backs to the sun, however the sun had set just behind the buildings but there was still plenty of golden light illuminating the trees behind my couple, providing a gorgeous background. Since the sun had already set behind the tree line there was no shadows to deal with on my couple’s faces. I asked them to cuddle together for a quick series of images..jpg)
What New Hope engagement session would be complete without stopping to shoot on the bridge between Lambertville and New Hope? Just make sure there aren’t too many people crossing the bridge when you’re trying to get your image..jpg)
Just because the sun completely disappeared over the horizon doesn’t mean you have to stop shooting. A silhouette shot at the end of the day is an easy image when you know what you are doing..jpg)
Mercedes and Sal had no trouble cuddling up to each other for their photographs. Using the leading lines of the small bridge was a simple and effective way to draw your eye towards the subject..jpg)
Using the architecture to your advantage is something a good photographer should always do. Here i simply asked Mercedes and Sal to sit together on this stone wall. The light was even on their entire bodies which means I could shoot from any direction and any angle I please..jpg)
You don’t always have to photograph both couple’s reactions at the same time. Here I told Sal to whisper something funny in Mercedes ear so that I could get a great laugh from her. He definitely succeeded. I photographed them in front of a dark backdrop to make them really pop off the image..jpg)
Sun flare can be absolutely gorgeous when photographed correctly. For this image, I used very shallow depth of field to give this shot an intimate feel. Mercedes and Sal’s New Hope engagement session was a huge success!.jpg)
Boy was he a talkative little bird. Photographing them against the dark green background really made the bird and my subject pop..jpg)
Using a window as your main source of light is a great way to add emotion and drama to any image..jpg)
Again nothing but simple window light was used to create this image..jpg)
Melvin and his owner laid outside together in the warm fall sun..jpg)
When Melvin was finished following me around, he found a nice little warm patch of sun to take a little nap in. I used my .jpg)
Shooting with extremely shallow depth of field allowed me to really focus on Melvin and showcase the beautiful fall foliage.