I’m both a city girl and a country girl and love both for different reasons. When I first started photographing people I would always shoot in the park for the simple greenscapes and it seemed everyone agreed. I just couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to shoot in the city…until I acquired my SODO photography studio back in 2005. My mindset completely changed and the city streets rapidly became my favorite photography background. The streets are so versatile and make every session unique. Here you can match an outfit with a wall color, reflect your individual style, with bold clean lines, or more eclectic scruffy old brick walls, shoot in virtually anytime of day, as the tall buildings shade off the bright sun, or you can find a wall to reflect the light for a more contrasty look.
That being said, I still love the beaches and parks for family and senior Seattle portraits. I just love the way those backgrounds blur and add contrast to an image. What can be more beautiful than the golden light after sunset on a Seattle beach.
To help you solidify your portrait location in Seattle, here is a list of benefits of each location:
Urban settings for photo shoot:
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- You feel at home in the city, your idea of a beautiful day is shopping in the city with a beautiful sunset on the water.
- You like a gritty background of a distressed wall. Having multiple locations and backgrounds that can differentiate and match your style are a dream come true.
- You’re not thrown off by finding a parking spot in Pioneer Square, or having to move your location at the last minute because construction change
Nature-scape setting for photo shoot:
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- You feel at home in an outdoor nature setting. Your family can be found hiking a trail, geocaching, riding a bike on the weekend. Maybe all even in one day
- Your little one and they are in the crawly/falling down stage. There’s a lot of concrete in the urban areas and if you are concerned about falls or touching the not so clean areas of Seattle then parks locations are a better fit.
- Less “lookers”, more privacy.
Some of the other considerations for whether you shoot in an urban or nature setting: Light and time of day are big considerations. Kids, under 1, are usually better in an indoor setting as it provides less distractions than either urban or suburban. Using a blanket can be helpful for little ones that are not walking to keep hands and toes clean. If you are shooting in the summer at high-noon, the beach will being out lots of deep shadows and squints, but an urban spot has great shaded areas that allow portrait access any time of day. On the other hand, a sunset shot is just gorgeous on the beach at 8:30 in August, but probably too dark if you are downtown Seattle.
All in all, in designing your session, I’ll help guide you through the best locations for the time of day we want to shoot. If time of day is a priority, then we’ll talk about the best location, and if time of day is not a consideration, then we’ll talk about the locations that best matches your family or your style.
