<span class="drop_cap">O</span>h. My. Goodness. Can I just say, I am incredibly jealous of this family's photos. You hear that, Ginger? It's not fair! I absolutely adore all of them for different reasons, including all of them from <a href="http://shannonhuntphotography.com/2010/04/waiting-out-the-weather-salado-tx-family-and-child-photographer/" target="_blank">Part One that we did indoors</a>. And even better news for them? These aren't even all of them! They have even more to choose from in their gallery.

Let me take a few minutes to talk about my sessions, something I'm sure I'll probably say again on this site because they're just things I feel strongly about. I want to say it here as well because they're all visible in this one shoot.

<span class="drop_cap">1</span> <strong><em>Creativity.</em></strong> Before each of my sessions, I set aside time to brainstorm <em>just </em>for that session. I think and think and think, and I come up with new things for each family. One thing that really sets me apart from a lot of family photographers -- even a lot of on-location photographers trying to do what I do -- is that I hate using the same location twice. So far, I have yet to do that. I also don't have a lot of go-to poses I run all of my clients through. I think about your family individually and come up with new ideas just for you. I don't just claim to be a creative photographer. I <em>am </em>one. I don't want any of my clients' photos to look just like another clients' photos. 

<span class="drop_cap">2</span> <em><strong>Spontaneity.</strong></em> While I spend a lot of time planning for my sessions and show up with ideas in mind, I don't let that stop me from catching other moments or improvising when external forces aren't going perfectly, like <a href="http://shannonhuntphotography.com/2010/04/waiting-out-the-weather-salado-tx-family-and-child-photographer/">the weather for the first half of this session</a>. Whether it's a <a href="http://shannonhuntphotography.com/2010/03/merging-temple-tx-family-photographer/">ladybug crawling on someone's clothes</a> or kids stopping to check out a dragonfly (below), I don't want to miss it. It's all a part of your family's story, and my goal is to capture a story during our sessions. This is exactly why albums and books are such ideal products for my clients, so they can flip through and see their story -- all the details, all the memories, all the laughs we had together during our session.

<span class="drop_cap">3</span> <em><strong>Perfectionism.</strong></em> I am a perfectionist with a capital P. I notice every tiny detail of every one of your photos. I will never forget a conversation I had with one of my clients a few weeks ago after her session. As we were chatting, I asked, "What does your husband do for a living? I was editing out a small tanline on your husband's face from sunglasses, and while I was doing that I was wondering what his job must be." The look of surprise on her face was priceless. There have been times I've had a family all set up during a session, looked through my camera, noticed something wasn't right, and said, "Okay, let's move over here. This isn't going to work." Sure, it would be easier to leave everyone there and pretend nothing's wrong, but I wouldn't be able to stand it.

While I never think to myself, "I'll just fix this in Photoshop," (with the exception of zits and scrapes and things I can't fix with my camera) I am a perfectionist when I edit my clients' photos as well. You have no idea how I agonize over every photo. Although it would save me a lot of time, I don't just run everyone's photos through standard or purchased Photoshop actions. Each one is scrutinized and dealt with individually. 

And it's pretty much guaranteed that after I post photos here or in your gallery, I'll go back through, fix something minuscule no one will ever notice but myself or another photographer with an acutely sharp eye, and re-upload it without anyone being the wiser. If it winds up in your final photos, it was meant to be there. I am insanely critical of my own work, which I hope I never lose because it means I get better with every single shoot. The day I find a photographer who's as much as a perfectionist as I am and remotely in my price range is the day I can actually have family photos taken of us. It's a blessing and a curse, I suppose.

<img src="http://shannonhuntphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/temple_tx_photographer_family1.jpg" alt="temple_tx_photographer_family1" width="850" height="2033" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1095" />

<img src="http://shannonhuntphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/temple_tx_photographer_family2.jpg" alt="temple_tx_photographer_family2" height="2444" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1096" />

<img src="http://shannonhuntphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/temple_tx_photographer_family3.jpg" alt="temple_tx_photographer_family3" width="850" height="1950" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1097" />

<img src="http://shannonhuntphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/temple_tx_photographer_family4.jpg" alt="temple_tx_photographer_family4" width="850" height="1741" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1098" />