I have photographed this family for years. Different towns, different backdrops, different ages on the girls every time. When we started talking about doing another one, I was the one who brought up Long Beach Island, because in all that time we had somehow never shot there.
Why the Bay Side and Not the Ocean
There are two shorelines on LBI and they do not behave the same way in the evening. The ocean side faces east. Late in the day the sun is behind you there, the water is loud, and everybody squints. The bay side faces west, straight across the water toward the mainland. The water lies down flat, the wind drops, and the entire sky is in front of you instead of behind you.
So we met at a small bay beach in Beach Haven. Purple umbrellas still up from the day, a swing set in the sand, dune grass along the top of the beach, and a rack of rental surfboards a little further down. It is not a dramatic piece of coastline. It is a neighborhood beach, and that is exactly why it works. Nothing in it fights the people.
Three Sisters
We started in the dune grass, before anybody touched the water, because sand and salt and small kids only ever move in one direction and it is not backward.
The oldest sets the tone in this family. Her sisters watch her, and when she is loose they are loose, so I gave her the first stretch of the session and let the other two wander in on their own schedule. That is usually faster than trying to pose three kids at once.
The middle one has the biggest personality of the three and the least interest in holding still for any of it. The youngest copies whatever her sisters just did, about four seconds late. Both of those are good problems. You do not fix them, you just keep shooting through them.
Then Dad
Dad came in and the energy changed the way it always does. He is the one they climb, and he is completely unbothered about getting down in the sand to make that happen.
Every one of the three has a different way of being with him. The oldest goes cheek to cheek and grins. The middle one plants herself at his shoulder like she is guarding him. The youngest tucks in under his arm, goes completely serious at the camera, and lets him be the one who smiles.
All Five
By the time we put all five of them together in the dune grass, nobody needed instructions anymore. That is the entire reason I front load the individual and small group frames. The family picture everybody actually hangs on the wall is the one you take after they have already forgotten there is a camera.
They Went In
I did not have to ask twice. Somebody stepped into the shallows, and it was not long before all five of them were in the water in their good clothes, kicking sheets of it at each other.
This is the part of a beach session I will always trade a clean outfit for. Dresses come out of the wash. The frame where a mother is mid kick sending up a wall of bay water while she is still holding her daughter’s hand does not happen twice.
The Boats and the Board Rack
Then we worked our way down the beach and used what was there. A boardwalk lined with benches for the girls to run, a white skiff pulled up against the dune fence with the reeds gone gold behind it, and the surfboard rental rack on the bulkhead.
The board rack is the frame that says Long Beach Island without a caption, and that matters more than it sounds. Twenty years from now these are not just nice pictures of the girls, they are proof of exactly where the family was standing that summer.
Silhouettes, and Then the Sky
The bay beach faces the mainland, so the sun goes down into the far shore across the water rather than into open horizon. It gets low fast at the end and the whole bay turns into a mirror. We walked them out to the edge, put them in a line holding hands, and exposed for the sky.
Then mom and dad on their own, turned in to face each other, with the sun sitting right between them.
After the silhouettes I turned everybody back around, put the light behind me, and got a last few warm frames on the sand while there was still color in the air.
And then I stayed. After the family had packed up and headed off the beach, the sky over the bay went pink and orange and kept going. Every session on that side of the island has a chance of ending like this, and it is the reason I pushed for the bay in the first place.
Booking a Family Session at the Shore
The families I photograph the longest are almost never the ones who booked one perfect session. They are the ones who keep going, a new location and a new set of ages every couple of years, until there is a run of them on the wall. This family is one of those. A different spot every time, and this was the year we finally took it out to the island. You can see more of that work in the family portrait portfolio, read about how I approach family sessions, or look at the family reunion I photographed in Philadelphia for something on the far other end of the scale.
If you are planning a shore session, the two things worth deciding early are which side of the island you want and how close to the end of the day you are willing to go. Everything good in this post came from getting both of those right.
Ready to Start Planning?
Tell me about your family and where you want to be photographed, and I will take it from there. Start here.