Time To Get Serious About Blogging... Let's take a look at studio photo shoots versus outdoor photo shoots...

At Sentiments of Life Photography we specialize in both outdoor portrait photography and event photography (both inside and outside events).  In my opinion, there is nothing quite like using nature as your backdrop when you are working with clients.  Studio photography has never been anything that particularly interested me.  In my mind, studio photography is permanently etched as the photo studios from my early childhood... pull down or changeable screens in blue or white.  School photos that have a fake landscape in the background with a fence, green hilly pastures, barns and the occasional live stock roaming freely in the fields.  Everyone had a choice of 4 or 5 different backgrounds.  Of course, studio photo shoots are very much different today than they were years ago.  High tech lighting and special effects make for some very spectacular photo shoots.  I am in awe of some of the photos that I have seen that were taken using modern technology in an indoor studio setting.  Beautiful effects with lighting, special effects and props.  All a brilliant recipe for some of the most amazing photos that I have seen.  As beautiful as these are, and as creative as the photo shoot is, my personal preference has always been outdoor portrait photography.  Well, not even just "portraits", but outdoor photo shoots for individuals, couples, families, parties, events... just to name a few.  With outdoor photo shoots your background options are endless.  If the lighting isn't just right, move over 10 feet and you will have a whole new feel to the image that you are creating.  Not happy with the background that you see?  Do a 180 degree turn around and without leaving your location you have a whole new background.  Add in reflectors to take advantage of natural lighting, use the light bouncing off of neighboring buildings, add in some off camera lighting attached to a tripod and you have created a whole new feel to the same location, the same setting, without ever having to leave your current location.  Now... here is the fun part... you can pack up your car and just go... your studio is an open canvas.  If your client wants a beach photo shoot, then take your pick.  Living on the Gulf Coast the possibilities are endless.  Beach, waterfront shoots, lakes, rivers, streams, bays.  There are so many possibilities that you need not worry about limited options for photo shoots.  Gulf Coast living affords many great opportunities for capturing life's special moments without sacrificing originality and having your photos looks like every other person that has had the same type of photo shoot.

The idea of working from a studio feels as if I am being held back.  As if my creativity is being limited to the confines of the walls of the structure.  Of course, this isn't true because studio photography can be absolutely breathtaking and you are only limited by your imagination.  That being said... I want to be free to take my photo shoots to my clients.  To be able to pick the perfect location for whatever their vision of the perfect photo shoot is.  Whether it is a field of cotton, a sunset on the beach, a laid back photo shoot along a river on a lazy spring afternoon, an urban style shoot in the streets and alleys in downtown Mobile... I just have to get in my car and go.  I can go and have a different feel to each and every one of my photo sessions, and this is why I absolutely love outdoor photography!