Jon Hauge-Family beach photographer serving Gulf Shores. If I am fortunate to serve your family during your beach vacation you will be dealing directly with me. I am not part of a photography group or have other photographers working for me. I have several years of experience doing family beach photography so I am prepared for just about any condition. I would like to order up bright beautiful days but that isn’t the reality. The beach determines the conditions. Because I use studio lights I am not as dependent on natural light. This means we can shoot well past sunset when the summer temperatures are not as hot and the sun isn't blinding to the eye. My technique preserves the detail and beauty of the Gulf Coast beaches. For small families to large family reunions I can help you preserve your family beach vacation memories. Sometimes you may have only one day the whole family is together so there isn't a makeup day.

Full sessions are about an hour. For family reunions that have multiple families we can go longer if necessary. You will get an edited online gallery and each family member will then be able to download what they want from the gallery. You get to choose what you want. Print ordering is available through the gallery if you want quality from a professional lab and you can also take the files to get printed at your favorite lab as well. Also included will be a link to a mobile app for phones and tablets.

Start time for the sessions will be about an hour before sunset. During the summer this is around 7 pm. The best and most dramatic looking conditions start about 15 minutes to sunset. If you go with the hour long family session you will get the brighter look at the beginning and then the more dramatic looks at sunset. Mini-session start around 2 hours before sunset. You will not get the beautiful sunset look and the conditions may be less than optimal depending on the weather conditions at the time.

Gulf Shores is a premier destination on the Gulf Coast. Because of this tall condos are the common site along the beach. We can have the session where you are staying out of convenience. However, you will have a greater chance of having people in the backgrounds as well as condos. The views are more limiting which can be important depending on wind direction. I can make recommendations for more natural looking areas if you are willing to drive about 20-25 minutes. If your family is staying on the West End of Gulf Shores at a beach house or down Fort Morgan Road you re going to have more natural beach settings for your session.

In case of bad weather I usually have a day during the week we can reschedule. However, sometimes there is not an option to reschedule so the shoot has to happen that day if possible. This is when we look at the hourly reports that day and I will make exceptions to shoot earlier. If the priority is getting pictures because this may be the only time the family will together, we can make it happen. Most condos have a lobby that we could use and beach houses will have cover. It is rare we will have a day that it rains the whole day. In the rare event a weather event cancels the session the deposit will be refunded. While I am not part of a photography company I am networked with local photographers so I will do my best to line you up with another photographer in case we need to cancel the session and there isn’t make up opportunity.

With my years of experience photographing young children I have found it is best to not bribe children with treats or promises. When you do that, once I take a few pictures they think the session is over. I typically start the session focused on the toddlers and small children. Even during the mini-sessions I take breaks so the children can play at the beach and I can get some candid family interaction photos. Even the best behaved children can have a meltdown during the session. Sometimes the candid portraits turn out to be the best ones from the session.