Storytelling Portrait Photography

Book excerpt: Photojournalists are trained to scout important events, capture mood and emotion, predict peak action, and create images that, in an instant, tell a compelling and memorable story. In this book, award-winning photojournalist Paula Ferazzi Swift (from Framingham, MA) shows readers how she adapted her photojournalistic approach to create a thriving family portrait business. In an increasingly competitive market, professional portrait photographers need to hone their skills to capture heirloom-quality images that are a step above the rest. With the tips in this book, readers will learn how to use — or cultivate — a photojournalist’s precision capture skills to chronicle family moments that matter. Ferazzi Swift offers ideas for creating a strong and lasting client connection, eliciting memorable moments, finding storytelling locations, inspiring natural action and reactions, and capturing the inter-relationships between siblings and between children and their parents. Armed with the skills in this book, photographers will be able to capture more genuine, charming, memorable, and expressive portraits that truly depict the family’s interests, the subject’s personalities, milestone moments, meaningful locations, and the unique bond the family shares.