Fall, especially in Cleveland, is my favorite season of the year. This year's Fall weather treated us to some amazingly beautiful warm days. John and Lisa's family portrait session, which was scheduled for Sunday, November 6th, was one of many warm Fall days in Northeast Ohio. November rain? Not this year! John, Lisa, Jayden, Cameron, Taylor, and Cooper met me in the Brecksville reservation for their first set of group photos. Daylight savings moved time back an hour and we had to move fairly quick to work with the shortened day. The first location was near the Brecksville Nature Center. The sun was in the perfect position to backlight the fall leaves on the trees and more importantly, the family being photographed. A single Profoto B1 with a 32" beauty dish was position at camera right to create some nice soft and directional fill light.
Right down the street from our first location, we headed down to the train depot station off of Station Rd. The bike/walkway bridge is an excellent place for portraits but the bridge has a high amount of pedestrian and biker traffic. Portraits can be a bit challenging but a little patience and some quick work can pay off quite well.
On the way back to our vehicles from the bridge we could hear a train in the distance. This presented a great opportunity for a family photo with a Cuyahoga Valley Train approaching (safely) in the background.
What's the point of a Fall portrait session without tossing leaves in the air?
We then headed down to Abbey Rd to capture a family photo at one of three Destination Cleveland's "Cleveland" signs. The other two signs are located at Edgewater Park and at North Coast Harbor (in front of the Rock Hall). The Rock Hall sign was first on our list but the Cleveland Browns game was going on during our portrait session. The position of the Cleveland sign at the Abbey Rd location made it a bit rough for portraits (no clouds and the sun was at camera left, but not far enough to the left to avoid squinting in the sun). While waiting for better/more favorable light, I noticed a patch of brush right next to the sidewalk along side Abbey Rd with the sun backlighting the shrubs (sorry, I'm not a plant expert and I have no idea what type of plant/weed/shrub this is, but it looked pretty cool back-lite by the sun). I positioned all of the kids individually and used the sun for hair/backlighting and a Profoto B1 diffused with a beauty dish to fill in light from camera left.
Last but not least, the Cleveland sign.