There is No Expiration Date on Classic Portraiture!

by Skip Cohen

​I know I've shared these images several times over the years, but it's holiday time. Like many of you, my thoughts pull me into the time machine, especially regarding my grandparents. At one point as a kid, I was lucky enough to have four grandparents and three great-grandparents still living. And since my grandfather was one of eleven, the holidays were pretty remarkable.

The two large portraits are of my grandfather and grandmother on my mother's side. In the middle are my great-grandparents. My grandfather and grandmother's portraits would have been captured around 1920, and my great grandparents' would have been late 1800s.

While Throwback Thursday posts are about memories, that's not my main reason for sharing today. Most of you who follow my blog are working or aspiring to be professional photographers. In a world where we've been sucked into instant fulfillment, and classic portraiture seems to be getting more and more rare - there's still nothing like a stunning portrait when the artist understands posing and lighting.

I'm so tired of meeting portrait artists who describe themselves as "natural light specialists." Seriously? We all know that means they haven't taken the time to learn studio lighting. And while you can get some of the effects with digital manipulation, there's still nothing like a solid image - "right out of the can!"

Beverly and Tim Walden talk a lot about how they don't create portraits but family heirlooms meant to be handed down from generation to generation. You owe each client your very best skills. They trust you to never say, "That's good enough."

Think about the portraits you've done over the last few years. Will they stand the test of time and be considered just as beautiful to family members when you're long gone?