A portrait of your family and kids at the beach can be an heirloom you will cherish for life.

Make sure you select the right Naples beach photographer.

• Use the internet as early as possible.  Good Naples beach photographers book up quickly.  Search for “Naples Beach Photographer”
• Call the photographer. E-mail and text don’t tell you much about him.  If no one answers the phone, expect a call-back  within 24 hours.  Sometimes we have all-day projects.  If no call-back, don’t call again.
• How long has he/she been in business?  How many beach portrait sessions?  Any other experience?  A competent Naples photographer will have shot lots of sessions in Naples over a period of several years.  Beware of young shooters with limited experience.
• Ask how/when she shoots the portraits.  Sunlight at the beach is radioactive — how does he handle it?  The only time to shoot portraits at the beach is when the sun is very low — 30 minutes before sunset, or 30 minutes after sunrise.
• Ask to see samples of his work — especially a complete session.  Anybody can be lucky enough to get half a dozen decent photos for the website.  Good photographers have a consistent style that results in a large number of great shots from each session.  If he won’t show you samples, move on.
• How does the work look?  Is the lighting smooth and the skin tones soft, or are there strong shadows and high contrast?  Is there a halo around the hair? Most importantly, how are the expressions?  Happy and real, or forced?
• Is the photographer interested in you?  Does he ask you about your family?
• Will he give you the product you want, be it prints, digital files, or some combination of both?
• Does he color-correct and density-balance the digital files, or give them to you right out of the camera?  Does he retouch the prints?
• And finally, what do you get for your money?  How much is the session fee?  How much are prints?  How much for digital files?  How much does the average family spend?
• Here’s the kind of guy you are looking for:
  

(PS — That’s me, Jeff Carsten, a Naples Beach Photographer photographed in the Chicago studio)

The beach is a great place for family pictures, but it’s also wonderful for a senior portrait!

Here’s Maddie, a high school senior at her photo shoot in Naples.  We photographed in the shadow of the pier for smooth light, but when the sun got low we were able to capture these beautiful portraits on the beach.  Maddie was glowing, and so was I!  This is one of my favorite types of beach portrait photography.  Her family will cherish these beach pictures for years to come.

Contrary to the PR we send to the North, Florida sometimes has lousy weather. On portrait day we had cold, windy, dreadful weather that made Naples beach photography impossible. What to do?  Plan “B”!  Shoot indoors.  In this case we used the lobby of the clients’ condo building for some wonderful portraits, some with a Christmas tree in the background.  The day after this session, the family left Naples, but they will always have these Plan “B” portraits to cherish.  They even have a digital file that they can use for the 2016 Christmas card.

Well, actually, it’s winter here.  A friend of mine who moved here from NY several years ago called me in Chicago and said: “Jeff, you have to come down here — it’s summer all year long!”.  But the best weather of the year is between December and March — when it is the coldest up North.  When you come to Naples, give me a call for your beach portrait photography.   The light is magical, and Pier makes a background statement that places you in one of the best places in the world to vacation.

“Some day when I come back as a younger man, I’ll spend every winter in Naples” Fortunately, I’ve been able to do it without putting myself in a time machine.  It’s unbelievable down here.  And the beach portrait photography is wonderful. Give me a call to set your appointment before you visit Naples.  That way you can pick your favorite time, and we can plan a beach portrait photography session that you will cherish for a lifetime.