Texas Bluebonnet Photos 2021

For many of us here in Texas, spring is just about one thing - waiting for the perfect time to go get those family bluebonnet photos! There are so many factors to consider - location, time of day, what to dress the kids in, etc. For us, we don’t actually take a lot of family styled photos of our kids, but bluebonnet photos are the one annual thing we do. And to be honest, I stress about it every year.

Getting the Perfect Bluebonnet Pictures

If you haven’t already, go check out my previous blog post, that gives a lot of tips and trick on how to get great bluebonnet pictures. Click Here to check out that post! There are a lot of great tips there that will help you get really fantastic photos. Here’s what I did this year to try to up my bluebonnet photo game!

My Camera

This year, for the first time in a few years I decided to go back to film for our family bluebonnet photos. Last year during the middle of Covid season, I just snapped them with my digital. The previous year, our kids were really little and so I knew there was no way I was going to get them all to sit still and behave so there would need to be a lot of editing and photoshopping. But this year, I thought I had a chance to get a decent shot of my three younger kids. I loaded up my Hasselblad 501cm with the 80mm lens attached and headed out! The 501cm is an amazing camera, its fully manual but its fast for a fully manual camera. Plus, I just really wanted to use this camera. I mainly keep it in the studio, but I felt a trip to the bluebonnet fields would a fitting exercise for my latest camera acquisition.

My Film

I’ve known for like 4 months what film I was going to use for this shoot. I’m not kidding when I say that we take these photos very seriously each year. I’ve literally been planing these photos since winter started. For this shoot, I decided to go with Kodak Portra 400. I’m using a medium format camera so I used the 120 version of the film but you can also get it in 35mm. Portra is great for skin tones and that’s what I really wanted to focus on this time around. I loaded up two rolls (24 exposures) and hoped I could at least get one decent photo out of 24…. But there was no way to be sure that would even happen.

One trick that I have learned from shooting with Kodak Portra 400 is to shoot it at ISO 200 instead of 400. This means, you are essentially overexposing the image, but the over exposure actually brings out some of the best qualities of Portra and it can be easily corrected in the scan/print process.

Lighting Bluebonnet Photos

We were traveling back from College Station after visiting our oldest at Texas A&M and we were adding this photoshoot on to the end of a very busy weekend. There are several amazing locations in Ennis, TX for bluebonnet photos, which was on our way back to that’s where we planned to stop. If you’re looking for a great location for bluebonnet pictures - Ennis is it for North/Northeast Texas! Unfortunately, the time we were going to be in Ennis was not going to give us the best lighting, so I had to improvise.

I positioned my family in a little patch with their right sides facing the mid-afternoon sun. The shadows were harsh. I metered for the bright sunlit side of their faces and then I pulled out my strobes to fill in the dark shadows on their faces. I metered the shadows first and discovered that they were 4 stops below the light side. Which is harsh for sure. If you are looking for a meter, I use the Sekonic L-478D-U. Its an incident meter but it works great and has been a very handy tool to have in my camera bag for years. I set up my lights to try to compensate for the shadows. I had brought with me my Profoto B2’s (these aren’t made any more sadly - the Profoto A1X is a good replacement) and a Profoto 2’ Octabox to help control the harshness of the flash. The octabox from Profoto has two diffusers inside so it really really softens the shadows a lot and fills very nicely. I positioned the flash about 5 feet from my subjects at a 45 degree angle to fill light from the left side.

Posing for Bluebonnet Pictures

While I had several great picture poses in my head, we had to just go with whatever my kids would do that day. As you can see form the photos below, it was kinda a mess. Make sure you get low and get lots of bluebonnets in the shot and in the background. We were positioned on a hill so being lower also meant I could cut out all of the people that were on the other side of the hill taking photos also.

Processing the Film

While I normally process my own film, I’ve been swamped lately with weddings and events so I sent my photos off to done at Richard Photo Lab. These guys are absolutely amazing! Their prices are reasonable and their customer service and attention to detail is unmatched! I went ahead an ordered prints as well and have been so very pleased with the results!

The hard part about film, especially when you send it off is waiting. Richard Photo Lab is very prompt and it doesn’t take very long to get your images back, but when you’re really excited to see if they turned out, it might was well take forever lol.

With out further delay, here are our Bluebonnet Photos for 2021!

Bluebonnet Pictures

Book Us for Your Bluebonnet Photos!

If you would like photos of yourself or your family in the beautiful Texas bluebonnets, we would be happy to shoot them for you! Our sessions are always flexible, affordable and fun! Click the button below to book your bluebonnet photo session today!

How to Get Great Bluebonnet Photos

How to Get Great Bluebonnet Photos

So, I'm gonna start off and say that if you want the absolute best bluebonnet photos, then you should just schedule a session with us and let us take your amazing bluebonnet photos...  Just throwing that out there.

But, seriously, here are a few simple tricks to making sure that you get great bluebonnet photos with those precious kids or grandkids or dogs or tacos or whatever you love and want to frame with bluebonnets.

COMPOSITION IS KEY

Framing up your photo, or the composition of your photo is one of the key elements to getting a great pic.  Traditionally, most people take photos standing with their subjects kneeling or sitting in the flowers.  It adds a lot of great perspective however if you, the photographer, kneel down as well.  It creates a neat effect, especially with younger children.  Kind of an "on their level" look.  The lower you can go, the better!  While most people like to center their subjects in the frame, don't be afraid to try some different angles!  Bluebonnets and beautiful from every angle.  Get creative and try something different.  Who knows, you may start a new Texas Bluebonnet trend on facebook or instagram!

An example of a shot from standing position.

The bokeh (blur effect from the lens) makes this image much more interesting.  Well, except there's a highway in the background... But you get the idea.

Lighting, Aka the Tricky Part

Lighting either makes or breaks any photo.  Most of the time, people parking on the side of the road to snap a bluebonnet photo are using a cell phone or a smaller point-and-shoot camera with a very minimal flash.  The biggest mistake most people make is not lighting their bluebonnet photos correctly.  Time of day plays a big part in this equation, because the midday sun produces harsh light and even harsher shadows making the highlights of your image super bright and the shadows super dark.  This is a very undesirable effect.  Early morning or later afternoon are definitely the best time of day to take your photos as the natural light is way more accommodating. 

Taking Photos Facing the Sun

Here’s our 2019 Bluebonnets pic, facing the sun.

Once you're out standing in the middle of those beautiful blue flowers, you basically have two options for lighting.  The first, is to have your subjects face the sun directly, which can be a nice effect lighting up the subject and the background beautifully.  The problem with facing the sun is that often times you are still dealing with some harsh shadow plush some very squinty-eyed subjects. It is really hard to get a good bluebonnet pic when your subjects’ eyes are watering and they are trying to smile through the pain of the bright Texas sun.

These are available on Amazon and are cheap and easy to use!!!

You can purchase a diffuser to take with you. They are usually between $20 to $40 on Amazon and they are so easy to use. Besides the diffuser, you’ll need a stand or a volunteer to hold the diffuser during the photo. I personally recommend using a volunteer! To use, position your subjects facing the sun, then deploy your diffuser so that it casts shade over your subjects. You want to specifically get their faces, but you need to make sure there’s no harsh shade/sun line where the diffuser ends. You’ll need to play around with the angles a little to get it right, but using a diffuser will result in a beautiful golden image with softened shadows and no risk of your subjects going blind.

Taking Photos Facing away from the sun

This photo of my daughter, facing away from the sun, using a reflector to help fill out the shadows

Or you can choose the second option and put the sun directly to your subject's back and use a flash or a reflector to light your subject.  I generally choose this second option and use a high powered flash or a reflector.  Your phone won’t have a flash powerful enough to light your subjects, so your best bet is to pick up a cheap reflector from Amazon.

Most reflectors come with reversible covers that allow you to adjust how the light is bounced back on your subjects. You will have to play around with the reflector to see how each surface affects the light, but they are amazing and relatively inexpensive! Here’s a link to one on Amazon that I’ve purchased and keep in my car just in case! Just position it in front of your subject, but out of the frame and move it around until the lighting on your subject looks the best.  Try to be on one side or the other of your subject, it will give them a nice light side and slightly shadier side making the photo more interesting.

The Camera App - The Thing We Take for Granted

The default camera app on iPhones and Android devices are ok, but not great.  Instagram takes reduced sized images and Snapchat equally doesn't give you much room to really edit your image.  I really love the VSCO (pronounced "visco") app for the iPhone.  It allows me to take 'raw' images, and gives me a ton of editing options.  There are also a lot of premade filters that you can get for free or purchase that will make your photos look amazing.  You can take the photos and make edits, and then go back and change those edits later.  It is a great app to have and use!

Don't be Afraid to Have Fun

A rare photo of me, in the bluebonnets.  Probably one of the best photos of me every taken...

Not every bluebonnet photo session is going to go smoothly, so don't get frustrated when your kids don't cooperate.  We recently tried to get some bluebonnet photos of our little ones and it just turned into a screaming disaster. We didn’t stress, instead we took some really hilarious photos of the kids loosing it in the middle of the beautiful fields of blue and then packed them up and planned to shoot again on a different day.

Main, just have fun and enjoy the moment.  The best pictures are made when everyone is having a good time.  Those smiles and those flowers are what make Texas Bluebonnet Photos a time honored tradition.  Remember that you aren't really making pictures, you're making memories. 

We were quarantined during the 2020 bluebonnet season, but we used a patch in our back yard cause you can’t be a Texan and not get some bluebonnet pics of your kids!

Click here to check out our 2021 Bluebonnet Photos.