Amy Shertzer Photography | Los Angeles Photographer

Just as soon as a session is booked, I always get asked “what should we wear?”  And with an entire weekend of mini-sessions coming up, I thought now would be the perfect time to give a few tips. . .

I respond to the question with a few basic rules:

*Pick things that express your personality and style

*Go with “coordinating”  rather than exactly “matching”

*Avoid logos. . . the eye tends to go straight for those things, rather than the subject, when looking at the pictures.

*Choose varying colors and textures to create visual interest.

*Think about your home decor.   If you’re going to have portraits on your walls, where you’ll see them daily, you want to be wearing colors that you like.  And colors that coordinate with your home decor.  It may sound silly to dress to match your furniture, but we’re creating art for your walls and you want it to be in harmony with the rest of your home.

*Pick all of the outfits for the family as if you were dressing one person.  Lay all of the outfits together on the bed and see how they work together.  You wouldn’t dress yourself in head-to-toe denim or black or white.  You’d have different–but complementary–colors, different textures, some fun accessories.

*Final tip is to start with the person that is hardest to dress or the one who has the outfit you just must have in your photos.  Then build everyone else’s outfit around that.

If in doubt, give me a call before your session and I can give you more advice.  Or you can even bring a suitcase full of clothes and we’ll go through it before your session!

Before wrapping this up, I thought I’d share a little more inspiration from a few of my fabulously dressed clients:

So I guess my quiz was a little too easy, either that or I have lots of readers with a discerning eye!  The top image was indeed taken with my Canon 5D/24-70 f2.8L combo and the bottom image was taken with my iphone.

The phone picture quality is definitely not as good, but for a camera built into a phone, I must say that I am impressed.

I wouldn’t say that my phone camera is becoming a substitute for the dSLR, but I find myself getting more and more quick snapshots of my kids with my phone.  It’s just so much easier to take that out and about.  Where I’d really fall short is if I wanted to print or enlarge any of the images taken with my phone.  Usually, though, I’m just happy to have captured the memory and been able to share it immediately, and if a few of my memories live in my phone and on facebook, that’s okay with me!  I still have plenty of high quality memories, too!

This past weekend I visited the Aquarium of the Pacific with my family.  My 4-year-old son loves “ocean animals” and had been begging since we moved here in August.  Let’s just say that it was worth the wait and none of us were disappointed!

It’s so fascinating to see creatures that we don’t encounter every day.  To watch them float through clear waters amid beautiful plants, rocks, and coral.  It’s mesmerizing to watch and I could have stood at the seahorse and jellyfish tank all day.

 

The leafy sea dragon is another fascinating guy.  Amazing how nature works, huh?

This starfish put on a little show, as well, seemingly kicking up his heels and giving a friendly wave at the visitors!

And this guy gives off a bit of a menacing vibe.  Beautiful and intricate markings with elaborate fins, but I wouldn’t want him to swim by my leg at the beach!

I found plenty of beauty outside the Aquarium, too.  The city of Long Beach has a beautiful water-front path lined with bricks that create some really cool lines.

And a lovely little park on a peninsula, complete with lighthouse, palm trees, and soft grass hills, perfect for rolling down!