Here is my plan for taking pictures when we get together with our friends’ family this Christmas. I am going to keep photography somewhat low profile, without making a photo shoot instead of the dinner, although I received a specific request to bring the camera (which I take as a compliment).
The friends’ house has a lot of natural light, so I am going to shoot mostly without flash, using fast prime lenses (Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM
One thing that I want to take a bit more formally is a group photo. We’ll use it as an excuse to extract everybody from the table at some point. I am going to email the group picture to the friends the same day – instant gratification and ability to share it over social media is more important in situations like this than even qualify of the photo itself. This photo would also be a preview of more pictures to come over the next couple of days, when I have a chance to process them.
Besides the group photo, I am going to take some candid shots of the kids and perhaps a couple portraits of adults. I like to keep the camera handy during the party, but not spend all the time clicking away. Instead, I will do a couple of brief shooting “sessions”, when others have relaxed and are absorbed by conversation, games (in case of children), or whatever else they might be doing.
From experience, I know that the shallow depth of field of the f/1.2 lens will add an artistic quality to the portraits and will make them look less like snapshots.
