A beach is always a great location to do a portrait photography.
While I wasn’t impressed with the overall beauty of the beach resort that we went to last January 2023 (read: 2-Day Family Trip: Laiya, San Juan, Batangas and Tagaytay), I managed to find a good spot to conduct a quick photo session with my niece, Khloe. (She’s the cover of the In Focus page, in case you’re wondering.)
That day, we had a sunset photoshoot and a night session whose concept was somehow new to me. Here’s some of the shots I took that day (and night).
Related posts:
- In Focus: Laiya, Batangas in black and white
- 2-Day Family Trip: Laiya, San Juan, Batangas and Tagaytay
Sunset portraits in Laiya, Batangas
Don’t be afraid to experiment with colors… as long as the image doesn’t hurt the eye.
Moreover, don’t be afraid to ‘lose’ color or to go full silhouette. It’s your art.
Sunset and sunrise are a tricky but beautiful time to capture photos. During these times, especially when the aim is to take a photo of a person with the sun behind, it takes some expertise (not in any of these photos) or a bit of effort (using reflectors or some flash technique) without compromising the exposure of either the subject or the background/sky.
And for me, I cannot be bothered to try any of the above technique, at least just yet. I still love my dim to dark and or silhouette sunset portraits to preserve the mood and as they feel more elegant and natural.
A photographer may ask a subject to change his/her position relative to the sunlight if capturing the sun/sky is not part of the plan to get a slighlty brighter shot of the subject.
Khloe stands not totally against the light and with a little less dramatic background.
Experiment with objects that are already in the shoot location and incorporate them in your shot like what I did here. I used the boat’s outrigger which created a blurred foreground.
Here’s the last sunset photos where I aimed to place the sun through the space between her arm and body.
Beach night portraits
It was Khloe’s idea to use sparklers for this photoshoot.
It was a tricky one and we had some help (assistants) from others to pull this one off. Another niece was holding two phones with their flashlights on to add lighting during this shoot.
It was quite dark at this area and obtaining focus was a challenge, let alone getting a proper exposure without raising the ISO too much. I also used the internal flash for these photos. The cellphone lights were also used (held from one side) to add softness (an interanl flash alone gives a harsh and flat lighting).
A few others asked to be photographed, too.
The award-winning (they recently hoarded the best-ins in their classes) brother and sister Simon and Viel, baby Ellai, and Jacob.
And of course, Nanay and Tatay.
The joy of taking photos of people compared to taking landscapes and scenery hits differently.
When taking photos of the surroundings, I sometimes enter a different zone, mainly because of the raw beauty of the scene.
However, taking photos of people gives a different sense of satisfaction. The emotions and expressions you see while looking through the viewfinder is priceless. And those emotions that you managed to capture is yet another fullfilment.
I thank God for photography.