I had the opportunity to work with April Barker and her family for extended family photos at Manistee Ranch! April Barker is a wedding photographer who I’ve worked with on many occasions. Check her website out if you ever need a wedding photographer!
Click here if you’d like to skip to the gallery.
Manistee Ranch is a wonderful and popular location for family photos. It has so many options for backgrounds! There are beautiful arches over walking paths with vines growing through them. Additionally, there are a couple large grove of trees. Finally, there’s a big, red barn, and a rustic looking building in the center of the ranch.
If you’re in need of a family photographer, I’d love to be your photographer! Please check out my family portrait page on my website which has pricing and contact info.
Setting Up Family Photos
April contacted me through Facebook Messenger to see about my availability and pricing. They chose a family portraits package that fit their needs and budget and we set up a time about an hour before sunset. Shooting at this time of day gave us more flexibility. Although it’s not an absolute requirement to get create great images, it definitely helps! The hour before sunset is generally referred to as “golden hour”. It’s flexible for shooting because the light isn’t as harsh as other times of day and we have larger shadows cast from trees and buildings we can shoot under, and shorter trees can help block the sun from casting glare into the lens.. As a bonus, the sunsets in Arizona can look just amazing!
Shooting Family Photos
This extended family photo session was comprised of five family units (which includes the grandparents as well). We started getting images of the individual families and individual shots of the kids by themselves While waiting for a couple of people stuck in traffic to arrive. This made most efficient use of our time and the light we had available since the sun won’t wait to set. Once everyone had arrived and we got the remaining individual family photos, we began posing for the whole family. Then we shot different combinations of grandparents with grandkids, just grandkids by themselves, and grandparents with parents. With our last remaining light, we took pictures in front of the large barn. These photos needed to be done last because the family would be looking directly into the sun and direct sunlight can be very harsh for photos.
Check out the gallery below if you’d like to get ideas for backgrounds and posing at Manistee Ranch! And of course, visit my website if you’re ever in need of a portrait photographer!
Gallery
March 17, 2021