Ten on the Tenth: Portraits from Today's Session

I'm taking the "Beautiful People" portrait class with Cheryl Johnson, and this week's assignment was to take some unusual, fun portraits, including some with a "photo booth" approach (a neutral background and props) and some that are just of hands.  My good friends (Rich, Hillary, Ian and Rebecca), pictured above, agreed to help me.  Shimelle is hosting a "Ten on the Tenth" blog link-up, so I thought I'd share ten portraits I took today for this assignment.
For my photo booth, I threw an old blue electric blanket over the fence on their back deck. The first prop I used was a stack of dry erase boards. I gave them each one and asked them to write or draw something. I got the idea from Tara Whitney, who blogged about it in this post. Here's what my friends did:

My next prop was a stack of empty picture frames. I know I've seen this idea in various places, such as in this post.  Here's my four favorite with those props:

My favorite photograph of hands featured mom and daughter. I tried to go for the idea of Rebecca cradling Hillary's hand:

The family's really not that sentimental, though, so when I asked them what they thought we should do for hands, they went for this:

Which, of course, is "rock, paper, scissors."

On the whole, the assignment was much harder than I thought it would be, even with very willing friends.  As a result, I learned a lot! The light on the back deck was not great, but I didn't realize it until I was fully committed to working there. And I think I need a bigger backdrop, if I want to photograph more than two people at a time. I still like the idea of the dry erase boards, although a larger chalk board like the one Tara Whitney has would probably be better.  Will have to keep my eye out for one.  I also wonder if I should have given them a bit more direction on what to write (Tara told her models to write "a song lyric or something"). I'm not sure how I feel about the picture frame prop. The jury is still out on that one. Maybe I just need a bigger frame. I'd love any feedback you have on these or other props. By the way, check out this link to an article about fads in portrait props that I thought was pretty funny/interesting. 

On the other hand, I do want to say that I am very pleased with the basic family portrait I took and am very grateful to have such good friends! 

For more ten on the tenth posts, check out Shimelle's blog here (the link doesn't seem to be "live" yet, so you may have to check back later).