Character & kinship: the modern family commission.

Family portraits are one of those things in life that quietly become more precious as time passes. They capture you and your family exactly as you are, at this chapter of your life.

For Becky, her husband Trey, and their two kids, we created three distinct looks. The first was black-tie: polished, timeless, the kind of Vanity Fair energy that makes a family portrait feel like a cover.

Look closely and you’ll notice there’s no living-room furniture in these frames: a ladder, an apple box, and a posing stool. I’ve always been drawn to the way Irving Penn and Annie Leibovitz posed people against crude geometric structures instead of chairs and settees, and I think the reason it works is that a simple form doesn’t compete with the people in front of it. A ladder reads as more sophisticated than a velvet chair because it isn’t trying to be sophisticated. It’s also practical. A box and a ladder give me several sitting heights and places to put a foot or a hand, so four people can settle into a composition with real structure instead of standing in a line.

The second look was semi-formal, and the lighting was the opposite of the first. Instead of a single hard source from the front, I put a large octabox behind the backdrop, aimed back toward the camera, so the light spilled around the edges of the family. Two large white V-flats in front of them caught that spill and bounced it back into their faces. The result is soft, airy, and a little romantic, with a glow around the hair that you can’t fake in post.

Two looks in, we realized the timing lined up for sunset, so we packed up and drove to White Rock Lake. It wasn’t the original plan, but the casual, effortless energy of an evening outside was the right counterpoint to the two studio looks. A session that starts in a tux and ends in a field covers a lot of ground, and that range is the point.

Shortly after this session, AJK Images was voted 2019’s Top Photography Service in Dallas by LocalBest — a genuinely proud moment.

Interested in booking a family portrait session in Dallas? We’ll style your hair and makeup, help you choose the perfect outfits, and create a day your family will enjoy and cherish for years.