Hot & Humid in Morpeth

January 21, 2022

Hot & Humid in Morpeth

It was about mid year last year when a friend asked if I'd like to take some family photos of her partner and his children.

Of course I would! I don't really get to take photos/portraits of people that much and this was a nice opportunity. Mind you, we are shift workers and getting us with the same day off would be an achievement in itself!

It wasn't until December that we could meet up, 2 days before Christmas.

I chose Morpeth for the photos because it is a lovely little town with an historic bridge, and great little alleyways and older buildings. It also has a wharf just out of town on the Hunter River which is very picturesque.

The day was hot and humid and, let's face it, getting your photo taken with your 3 sisters is not a terribly exciting thing for a 10 year old boy! The young bloke was not in the mood but, you know; it doesn't matter! I have photos of our own children when they were not in the mood and now, when we get the photo albums out, we all have a good laugh about the moody, sullen faces captured forever on the prints; it priceless!

We wandered up the main street, stopping at spots to capture the moments, down the small alleyways in the cool of the shade, stopped at the park and then walked down the main street again to the Wharf on the Hunter River. We got our last photos there and the young bloke was in his element; he decided he needed a swim. After jumping off the wharf into that cool water, his temperament was definitely less sullen (haha). Got some good shots of him somersaulting and bombing into the river and finally having a ball! Being cooled off, I got a nice shot of him and Dad with the river and bridge in the distance.

As I mentioned, I don't often get the chance to do family photos. Although pretty happy with this lot, I realise I need more experience with posing groups of people.

For some of these I shot in 16:9 panorama mode. I could leave my camera in this mode forever, except when I have to shoot in Portrait, I change to 4:3.

I also need to consider equipment to take along. I have a Glanz reflector set that includes a round diffuser. The diffuser would have certainly been handy in the situations here where the Sunlight was bright and harsh on faces. I also need to consider using off camera flash with diffuser attached just sitting to the side a little on a tripod to give that fill into shadows. That being said though, that is a lot of equipment to be lugging around on a photo safari!

I shot with my Canon 90D and Canon 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 Nano USM lens. Edited in Lightroom and the Nik Collection Colour Efex Pro 2. Colour Efex Pro by Nik Collection has some great portrait tools. The Black & White photos were edited in the Nik Collection Silver Efex Pro and tweaked in Lightroom also.