Destin Beach Portrait Photographer

Destin Florida Beach Portrait Photographer

One of the reasons I love beach portrait photography so much is that it combines my two favorite disciplines. That is, landscape photography, and portraiture. Beach portrait photography presents many challenges. First of all I find it very important to find a focal point outside the main subjects of the composition. Although our beaches here Northwest Florida our beautiful there really is not a lot to them when it comes to composing your shot. Basically you have sand, water, and sky. That is why I always try to find a location that has additional features. Such as rocks, large pieces of driftwood, trees, and sand dunes. Also I always keep my eyes open and try to find certain beach activities that I can blend into the background. The other day while in the midst of a beach portrait session there was a guy flying around in a motorized hang glider. I positioned my subjects so that hang glider was in the background flying across the sunset which made a most beautiful portrait.

I try to avoid the beaches that are associated with the condos, and hotels that line our beaches. Although these beaches may serve their purpose. They usually are lacking interesting focal points and have a tendency to be rather bland when it comes to beach portraits. That is why I spend a lot of time in the off-season trying to locate interesting places to take my clients.

Another challenge that beach portrait photography presents is the constantly changing light conditions. That is why it is most important for the photographer to know his equipment know how to use it and know how to make timely adjustments. When the sun nears the horizon you only have about 120 seconds to compose and take your shots.

My fee for beach portrait photography session is only $100. That is about the same amount of money you would spend taking your family out to eat and Destin. There are no hidden fees. Included is a copyright released DVD disc containing all of the full size edited images. Also included are the many years that I have spent refining my techniques.

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Affordable, Elegant Beach Portrait Photography by Mark Benjamin, Destin Florida

Clothing Tips for Beach Portraits

What should we wear? That is the one question I hear most often. First of all let's start with what to avoid such as stripes, plaids, T-shirts with logos, and bold patterns. This particular type of clothing will draw the viewer's attention away from the true subject of the image, which are the faces and the beach itself. Instead you should choose neutral colors such as khaki, white, and off-white. Try very hard to avoid the more trendy styles. I have found that keeping it simple is the better clothing choice. Also I have found that trends have a tendency to pass away after time, which detracts from the timeless nature of the image itself. Try to choose clothing that fits nicely. Loose clothing has a tendency to fold and crease in the wind. You should also try coordinating the style of clothing as well. Have everyone dress in a similar style. In other words keep it beach casual which means khaki shorts, white shirts, or white dresses. Last but not least if you plan on spending time on the beach before your photo shoot please remember to use plenty of sunscreen. Especially on your face that way we can avoid the reverse raccoon eyes!

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We are pleased to announce our 2012 spring-summer beach portrait special.  We are offering our complete beach portrait package for only $100.  This price includes a copyright released DVD disc containing all of the edited full resolution images.

We cover the entire Northwest Florida region.  We will come to you.  Whether you're staying at Pensacola Beach, Navarre Beach, Okaloosa Island, Destin Florida, Miramar Beach, or Panama City Beach.  Just let us know where you're staying!

Why visit our beautiful Northwest Florida beaches and return home with a few T-shirts, and a handful of seashells?  Why not bring back high quality professional images that you and your family can cherish forever.

If you'd like to check out our beach portrait portfolios just go to: 

www.juniperlake.com/Beach-Portrait-Photography-Destin-Florida.html

Call or text us at 850-543-1373 to set up your appointment today!

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Click Here To View Photo of the Week

When I'm out on the road looking and waiting for something to catch my eye I try to develop a theme, a kind of a story, so I'm not just running around blindly looking for images to capture.  What I like to do is capture a series of photographs that connect with each other in a way that would stimulate the viewer's imagination.  Someone a lot wiser than me once said there are two people in every photograph the photographer and the viewer.

One of those road trips I had gathered several sets of GPS coordinates on waterfalls in northern Alabama.  After two days, for various reasons I was not able to locate a single one.  At times the roads were washed out, or for some reason the waterfall just were not there.  I was becoming very discouraged.  I was I was ready to call this road trip quits and return home.  I turned on the radio to listen to some music, and I couldn't believe what I was hearing!  It was an old song by TLC called: Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls.  For some reason, after I finished laughing, my mood lifted and I decided to stay out on the road for one more day.

As I said before I was in northern Alabama so I found a hotel room in this small town north of Montgomery call with Wetumpka.  It was dark when I arrived so I really couldn't get a good look at the place.  I tried to edit some of the photographs I taken earlier that day, but quickly grew disgusted and went to bed hoping for better luck the next day.

I got up early the next morning packed my gear and decided to take a little look around Wetumpka.  It was a beautiful little town nestled on the banks of the Wetumpka River.  I found a parking space in an area right at the foot of the bridge that crossed the river, found a bench and sat down to collect my thoughts.  It was early Sunday morning and everything was quiet except for the faint sound of a church choir drifting across the river.  So I got up from the bench and started to look around for the source of this music.  I saw that it was coming from a beautiful little church on the other side of the bridge.  So I grabbed my camera and went to work.

It never ceases to amaze me, when I'm ready to give up on something, but I decide to take one more shot at it it's usually some small little thing like the faint sound of a church choir in the distance that turns everything around.  I had been chasing waterfalls for two days, growing more and more frustrated every minute, but I got a say it was worth it.

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Click here to view the photo of the week for December 16, 2011.

 One thing I always try to keep in mind about landscape photography is that not everything in this world is beautiful. Sure, I have a plenty of pretty colorful images in my galleries, but not all of them. Some of them can be quite stark, dreary, and colorless. One of those times was while I was visiting small fishing town on the Gulf Coast of Florida.

 While I was walking around this town I found a small piece of waterfront. It was probably 150 to 200 yards long. The beach was made of nothing but oyster shells, broken beer bottles, and trash. There a handful of oyster boats moored to some half rotten pilings. It was hard to tell which was older, the boats or the pilings that they were tied to. I couldn't help but think of the oyster men that owned and operated these boats. A hard-working bunch of men and women, whose skin has been tattooed by the sun and the wind, hands calloused and hard as rocks, a strong, proud people harvesting the sea for a humble living,  performing backbreaking work day in, and day out on the oyster flats, for hardly enough money to pay for the bare necessities of life.  I did a little research on this town, and I found that the median income was roughly half that of the rest of the state of Florida.

 As I surveyed this scene I noticed a sunken abandoned boat moored to a piling about 15 yards offshore. Judging by the covering of barnacles and the amount of decay this boat had been abandoned for quite some time. I guess the owner of this boat was just going wait until it rotted away completely, or maybe the owner had rotted away completely, or maybe the boat was just abandoned who knows.  Oh well.

 I guess, what really caught my eye and help me put this composition together was the fact that this boat was sitting off all by itself, for what appeared to be, quite a few summers and winters, in that very same spot, all alone, with nothing but the seabirds to keep it company.  This boat had obviously reached the end of its usefulness and was left abandoned, tied to a rotting piling, left on its own to decay until there was nothing left.  I suppose one reason why this scene had such an effect on me was it reminded me that a lot of us are in the same boat, excuse the pun, left all on our own tied down by our own immobility, and left to rot because we are no longer of any use anymore to anyone.  Another part of this composition that I found interesting was, although the boat was partially submerged resting on the bottom, it was still tied off to the very piling, where it spent his last few moments of usefulness.  It is almost as if the piling was its tombstone and the pelicans and seabirds, where the friends and loved ones visiting its final resting place on a dreary Sunday afternoon.

 Later, Mark

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At last, after living in the state of Florida for over 15 years I have finally decided to plan a trip to Key West Florida. I plan on taking the back roads down there spending quite a bit of time photographing the small towns, people, places, and landscapes. I plan on leaving in the next month or so. How long I stay there well that all depends on how busy I am. Hopefully I'll be there for quite some time.

Stay tuned to my Facebook page so I can keep you posted on my progress. I really don't know why I haven't been to Key West Florida. For some reason, I keep heading north it's almost as if I've forgotten that there is a southern parts of the state even though I lived there as a child. Anyway I I'm sure that I will find many interesting things to photograph and share with you guys.                     

                                                                    Later, Mark

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We would like to invite you to browse all of our photo galleries. Take your time and examine all of our landscape, nature and fine art images. All of the images in these galleries are available for purchase!

We offer a wide array of landscape photography for sale. waterfalls, covered bridges, River towns, river bridges.and many more. See our vibrant Nature in Action photographic galleries lightning, and sunsets.

We have a large inventory of images available in many categories.

So relax kick back and cruse through our galleries. When you see something you like just click on order print. Then you will be redirected to our printing and products service. While there you can check out the aide verity of products we offer. A wide range of print sizes from 3.5x5inches to 40x60 inches. Metallic Images, Museum Mount Canvas, Pro Luster Print Mounted on Single Weight Art board, Print Mounted on Styrene with High Gloss Laminate (includes flat stand), and many many more. We also offer custom prints just give us a call!!

The Holiday Season is right around the corner! We have many items that you can apply our images to..Christmas Ornaments, Greeting Cards, Calendars, Photo Puzzles, T Shirts, 15 oz. Holiday Mugs,and many many more. Just point and click, it’s easy and painless!

We also accept all major credit cards!

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Beach Portrait Special

We are pleased to announce our beach portrait special for 2011.

For the remainder of the 2011 Spring and Summer seasons our sitting fees will be $75.00 for parties up to 10!

Don't let these precious moments pass you by. If you are visiting our beautiful Northwest Florida beaches give us a call at 850-543-1373 and set up your appointment today. We will come to you. Whether you are visiting Panama City Beach, Seagrove Beach, Grayton Beach Destin, Navarre Beach, Pensacola Beach and all points between.

Our subjects include families, children, pets, groups, boats, and reunions.

Our one time flat fee includes a copyright released disc containing all of the full resolution images of your event.

Call us today and set up an appointment you won't be sorry!!

(850) 543-1373

E-Mail: gtobradley@panhandle.rr.com

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Landscape Photography

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What an awesome addition to my family of lenses!! I have found this lens to be both rugged, and a perfect do all lens. The wide range of focal lengths have made it possible to almost eliminate the need to change lenses for the varying demands of both landscape and event shots. The Image Stabilization feature is excellent (a major improvement for Canon). The IS feature on this lens is also tripod-sensing. The lens can actually measure the limited amount of vibrations when a tripod is in use which reduces mirror slap as well as tripod vibrations (automatically placing the lens in the secondary IS mode). However this lens it is not perfect (no lens really is). I have notice a slight amount of chromatic aberration (CA) in the 28- 50mm range as well as some moderate vignetting at these focal lengths as well. Both of which are easily corrected during editing. Another problem I have noticed is some barrel distortion at the smaller focal lengths as well as some significant pincushion distortion throughout the entire focal range of this lens. I have read a few negative reviews concerning the tension ring, and the push pull zoom feature resulting in lens creep, I personally have not found this to be a problem. Yes the lens is heavy!! Get over it!! It is a Canon L series and built like a tank what did you expect. To sum things up I am very satisfied overall with the performance of this lens. It lives up to the high standards of the Canon L series family of lenses that I have come to expect over the years.

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Well summer is over, and it's time to hit the road again!! Hopefully we will bring home many images each of which will tell its story using your own imaginations as the author. It is my hope to make this the greatest JLP season ever!! So stay tuned.

At JLP we usually spend the summer "retooling". In other words we are working hard updating such things as web sites, equipment, and software. In order to reach a level of organization that can keep us going throughout the busy JLP season (fall, winter, and spring).

Thank you all very much for your support. We look forward to roaming this wonderful country with all of you. 

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It is my goal to eventually turn this web site into a photographic gallery. With a wide variety of art photography. With a little bit of everything from a simple nature photo, to landscape photography, and black and white photography. It is extremely important to me to have this web site evolve into a fine art photography gallery. 

 With every photograph I take I try to test the limits of my own imagination. Regardless of whether it is wedding photography, nature photography. Or me “just gettin busy  with a a macro lens” in a garden.

Fine art photography, takes a tremendous amount of patients and imagination. From wedding photojournalism, to your basic stock photo  image. Every fine art photograph in my gallery should tell a story.

 Our digital stock photography portfolio will be unique with every stock photograph a special project, requiring a “personnel touch” in order to make it “pop”!

I am also an event photographer . I feel that in order to refer to yourself as such, a photographer has to wear many hats. Whether it’s a wedding photographer in Panama City Florida, or a wedding photographer in Pensacola Florida.  A photographer should maintain a unique perspective in order to create a theme  Professional photography is not just some one with a camera taking pictures. It is someone with a desire and  passion for fine art photography, and not just wedding photographer, portrait photographer, or portfolio photographer.

I also specialize in black and white stock photos. So welcome to our web site please feel free to browse around ! Hopefully you will like what you see.

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Times are hard! Here at JLP we understand that all too well. Unemployment is high, and those of us who are employed have been subjected to corporate downsizing, and cost cuts (resulting in salary cuts, loss of benefits etc). These issues along with a multitude of other concerns have helped create an environment of uncertainty and apprehension unlike anything I can recall in my lifetime.

As I mentioned before WE UNDERSTAND!! That is one of the reasons why we really do not have any set fees for our event photography. Although we do have a price page on our website (and to be honest with you we are seriously considering removing that page altogether) these fees are not etched in stone.

Please do not hesitate to contact us to discuss your photographic needs!! I am confident that we can agree on a fee that is right for you and right for your budget!! We believe that a photographer should maintain  a unique perspective in order to create a theme. Professional photography is not just someone with a camera taking pictures. It is someone with a desire, and passion for fine art photography, and not just a wedding photographer,portrait photographer, or portfolio photographer. It is that passion that motivates us to put the art above the fees!!

Thank you very much!! If you have any questions, or would like to discuss a potential project, drop us  a line, or give us a call. we would be honored to be a part of your "good times".

Juniper Lake Productions Photography

Po Box 220

Defuniak Springs Fl 32435

Phone: (850) 951-0184

Cell: (850) 543-1373

E-Mail: gtobradley@panhandle.rr.com

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