I’m going to admit a flaw in my work to you, dear readers (and potential clients, eek!), in the hopes that it will help you better understand me and will help me grow as a photographer.

I suck at posing.

When I shoot portraits, I typically let people pose themselves. I usually ask them to stand or sit in a certain location and then just shoot away. I ask them for suggestions of what kind of shots they what and what kind of poses. I try to get them to show their personalities.  I try to make them laugh and be silly.  Sure, I can pose people in a way to make them look really good. I even have a book on it. But I find traditional poses very boring.  I want to see people for who they truly are.

I find letting people come up with their own poses creates the best photos, really showing off their personalities. For example, for the photo below from a Halloween wedding I just shot, I asked Lyndsey and Brennan to stand on the stairs, with one of them standing a few steps higher and both on opposite sides of the stairs. They were looking at each other and I suggested Brennan reach out his hand toward Lyndsey. I thought it might look cheesy, but sometimes cheesy makes the best photos. I stopped giving instruction and just took a bunch of photos. She took his hand. Then the below happened. Perfect Halloween wedding portrait. And it’s all them. You’re not going to get that if you’re constantly ordering people around. Sometimes our weaknesses can be our strengths.

Note that this probably isn’t the final edit, and the web format isn’t great for dark photos.