Every once in a while as a professional portrait photographer in Montreal, I get to do some work that really makes me feel good about myself and the people I am working with. There is a family I have known for many years, people I’ve grown up with, whom I love and respect deeply. They are a wonderful family, all boys (really big boys) and all smart, successful, personable and just really good people. Of course, a brood like this doesn’t come out of nowhere and the pater and mater familias are themselves true gems of humanity – the kind of people who make you proud to be a humanist and happy to know them.
I had the great honour and privilege to do a family portrait for this family, in honour of a 75th birthday for a man who is, for want of a better word, noble. It was a balmy end of summer evening, the cooler on the back deck was well stocked with white wine and beer, and the grandchildren were all shiny and freshly bathed. To keep things simple, and convenient given the number of people involved, we opted to do the portrait right there in the back yard. And I must say, the results were stunning. I’ve never been prouder of a family portrait than I am of this one, for many reasons but also for the simplicity of the set up and the ease with which we managed to get a series of families portraits done in one quick session.
(We also had a little fun recreating a family portrait taken twenty years earlier.)
