Environmental Portraits

I’ve been thinking about environmental portraits lately. If you don’t know what an environmental portrait is, I’d love to fill you in on this genre of photography. Here is the definition of an environmental portrait….

“An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject’s usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject’s life and surroundings. ”

This is one of my favorite images of my son during his senior year of high school. He practically lived in our basement, designing and making all kinds of wood products. On this day, I went down to the basement with my camera and it was at that perfect time of the afternoon when the sun was shining just right through our window.

This picture of my middle son was a finalist in last year’s Click Voice Competition. I’m so thankful I have this picture of him, as he moved out of this room soon after. Things change so fast with kids, and environmental portraits allow me to freeze in time certain phases of their lives.

This image is from one of my trips to Ethiopia.

As I’ve been booking seniors and documentary family sessions for this fall, I have been thinking about environmental portraits a lot. I would love to work some environmental portraits into a photo session with you and your family! Your portraits should tell a story about you.