Using Props For Your Beach Portraits

So you may find yourself asking if you should use props for your family portraits.

You like posing with props but don’t want your family portraits to look tacky. You also don’t want to take away from your beach setting, which you just don’t get every day. The trick is to add props in a classy, discrete way. At Island Life HH Photography we use different props for different types of sessions, as most photographers do. For example, we use a clam shell for infant and baby photos. We also use a picture frame to shed an accent on your family, as we make the rest of the photo black and white and bring out the color in the frame (which is where your family is). This forces the human eye to focus on what is inside the frame instead of wandering around the photo.

Tricks like this help add character to your family photos without the tackiness of props. We also like to use props to remind us that you are in fact, on the beach. We add starfish and different sea shells to “beach it up” for family portraits. We like to keep things natural so you won’t see us with beach balls and sand shovels. Part of our passion is that we love to bring out the natural beauty of the beach behind your family. What a better way to do that than to add a colorful sea shell?

We love our holiday photos as well!

Have you ever built a sand snowman? It’s very difficult. Luckily, you will never have to! We did all the work and made one for you! If you want your holiday photos on the beach, what better way to emphasize that than with a sand snowman? We have other holiday props as well which follow the classy theme but still bring the holidays to the beach.

Using these subtle tricks doesn’t seem like it should make a big difference, but it’s all the difference when it comes to props. Overdoing props is a big no-no and really takes away from the quality of your photos. It is important to keep it classy, and for us, to keep it natural!