Spring Forward: Seasonal photos

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Spring is a time of big changes in nature as well as a time for religious celebrations around the world. Each new season presents opportunities to create new images for your portfolio.

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Easter is celebrated as a religious holiday as well as a secular one with the Easter bunny and colorfully decorated eggs in cheerful baskets.

Since the Easter Bunny hasn't yet made a personal appearance and isn't available for photo ops, buyers turn to illustrators for images of the famous rabbit. Many of these images are humorous. Other aspects of the Easter holiday can be caught with the lens of your camera such as still life images of colorful eggs in baskets, children on an Easter egg hunt or dyeing eggs. Or an Easter sunrise religious service.

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In addition to the Easter lily and daffodils, another flower that is emblematic of spring is the lily of the valley. It is traditionally given to close friends and family in France on May 1 as a symbol of good luck for the rest of the year. Crocuses poking up in the snow are often the first sign of Spring in wintery locales and cherry blossoms and tulips bring out crowds of viewers in many parts of the world.

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Spring is planting season so, if you get out in rural areas, snap the following shots:

• Fields being tilled prior to seeding
• Close-up on hands with seeds
• Rows of seedlings just peeking through the soil

Other symbols of spring include baby animals such as ducklings, chicks and lambs. If you are shooting these cuties in the farmyard, reduce distractions in the background and zoom in on the animals.

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After a long cold winter, one of the first joys of the new season is running barefoot in the grass or sitting outside in the sun during the first warm days.

For certain young people spring equals: party! Spring break is a chance for students to break out of the winter blues, join thousands of others in faraway warm climates to surf, swim and have fun now that winter has ended.

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When shooting beach parties or other celebrations with predominately young people, keep these ideas in mind:

• Check ID's to ensure that the person is of legal age and grab a photo of their ID as proof to attach to a model release. If they are minors, don't use them as models if a legal guardian isn't available to sign a release.
• Even though alcohol consumption might be one of the major activities during spring break, showing teens with alcohol is not a good idea. (Customers using images with people drinking alcoholic beverages often require proof that the model is 25 or older.)

Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!" – Robin Williams

Ellen has over thirty years of experience in the stock business gained at such organizations as Dreamstime, UpperCut Images, Workbookstock, Corbis, Getty (Stone), The Image Bank (Artville) and the creative agency, After-Image, she started in Los Angeles at the beginning of her career. Having been directly involved in the creation of four major stock photography collections, Ellen offers her decades of experience to assist photographers seeking success in stock photography.

@ellenboughn ellenboughn www.ellenboughn.com/blog