As I started taking family shoots I realized it could make a great FRG fundraiser. So I offered my time and skills to the FRG and they took me up on it! We did 15 minute increments and six families signed up over a course of two days. Let me tell you, I don’t want to edit again for a while.

I say that, but I think part of it was the location we picked (Kamehameha Beach on Hickam). It ended up being “busy” (relative term for a military beach, it was actually pretty quiet for a Hawaii beach). I had to edit out a few people and a big, blue sun shade tent out of probably 25 pictures. Phew!

Each family paid $40 and I received $20 and the FRG received $20. I gave them all edited photos of my choosing, we guaranteed three good ones but most of the time they ended up with more.

Day one ended up being one couple and we had the bench set up in a weird way, and I feel bad because it made the pictures a little misaligned. Basically, either the horizon was horizontal or the bench was horizontal. If the Horizon was, the tree looked crooked. Anyway, we ended up shifting the set up on this little patch of sand. However, by the end with the rising tide the sand bar disappeared. You can see here my horizon line is still a little crooked. I did rotate in post processing, but obviously not perfect!

I’m learning that there are limitations to the software I chose. There are basic things I wish it did, like I think other software will auto rotate for the horizon with a click of a button. I think other software can also blur faces. I chose the software I did because it uses AI to enhance photos, so I can let the algorithm take care of most of what I need. I also picked it because it’s not subscription, so I paid once and don’t have to pay monthly. It’s the part of me that doesn’t want to pay for months I didn’t use, although I’ve been using my photo editor quite often (more than I realized).

Anyway, we fixed the horizon/bench issue by moving the scenery. However, other issues were that back to the left where you see the bushes was the huge bright blue sun shade tent. Also, the bright sun made it difficult for people to open their eyes to look at me, but it was the best lighting and again best for horizon lines. All things to learn and think about!

There were a ton of great shots that came out of these sessions and the families were so much fun. I’m really proud of the work I’ve been doing and think for $40 the results were on par with the value (especially including all that editing time).

I might ask permission to share more photos, but you at least get the gist of the shoot with the above one. Great learning experience, and it’s very interesting the time difference between shooting a couple and a family. I also was worried I wouldn’t have enough poses on the bench, but we did the shaka and sometimes isolated kids and did kisses. Then we also took people away from that and did spontaneous shots like dancing, jumping, walking, etc. I felt a little weird when I ended up with so much time after a session! But they go quicker when it’s not a full on family shoot.

Super fun, but I’m so so over editing for a bit!