The thing I love about family portraits is the way families tend to frame each other. Photography is like life for me, and life is like dancing. In dancing, the man is in most cases a frame to showcase the beauty of his partner. In turn the womans beauty showcases the strength and intricateness of the frame. It is that combination of strength and sesitivity that most men cannot help but portray. Dancing, and I’m talking ballroom and the like, requires complete trust in the partners, especially from the woman, and men always seem to take that trust so seriously. Which I bet while flying thru the air their partners are thankful for.
In photography, for mr at least when a woman says to her partner I want to take a photo with you, she is telling him in so many words, I trust you. I want to show off what we are to me, and she does when she is comfortable and secure in that moment. For him he wants to portray that trust. For him he wants to be solid, wants to portray the stability that he offers and that she gives him. He wants to stand and allow his pride and affection to be seen, and the childeren become the decoration, like the perfect gown or the exact right music. And then we can begin the dance.
WIth this family, it was very easy, to begin the dance. I often got caught up in just watching them together. Dad was the perfect frame, Mom with her easy beauty and son the perfect decoration. That day we met at the Boat House At Forest Park, we talked about light sabers and Yoda, their son and my girls, and marriage and life in general. We got rained on, and I think the best images came after the storm cleared. Which I think is a testiment to life and dancing, and hopefully photography.
