My beloved great-grandmother used to say we can talk about the weather but we can’t do anything about it. That may be true but we can step in from the rain or prepare accordingly. Approximately three years ago the summer weather on Whidbey drastically shifted to drab and cancellations, no-shows or reschedules became the expectation. I foresaw an unfortunate pattern lurking on the horizon for environmental photography and quickly moved to meet this business shift. During the Fall I invested time and finances to restructuring my studio and for the next few years studio portraiture became the standard. Life went on but my average sale consisted of an occasional 11x14 but mostly 8x10s and smaller. Then an early summer of 2009 hit Whidbey Island.
Early 2009 I displayed oversize canvass of families taken at local landmarks and the request for canvas mounted portraits quickly became the standard. Leary of previous weather patterns many brides planned indoor wedding portraits but gladly stepped outdoors to accommodate Whidbey’s best. They were of course amazed by the quality of the sessions. The bridal party easily became more animated and less posing and stage directions were required. The groom even smiled when snuggled next to the well meaning mother-in-law.
There’s a certain natural joy and spontaneity of expression found in environmental portraiture that can’t be faked during studio sessions. It erupts quickly and begs to be captured. My job becomes easy: I adjust for lighting, tweak head angles and let natural expressions unfold.
While I still offer studio sessions and smaller images, by far canvas enlargements have become the new standard for Pendleton Imaging & Photography. My beloved great-grandmother also said to THINK BIG but that's another blog entry.
