Nice McKinney Texas Portrait Location

[TackSharp]

I was driving down Eldorado Parkway in McKinney, Texas a few weeks ago and spotted this house from the road. I turned into the neighborhood and found this great portrait location. I recently did a shoot there. Here are some pics:

[timbertoes]

to be very honest, my eyes are drawn to the house,it's overpowering. Kind of have to force a view of your wonderful subjects.
cropping would help and then would have some good background.

[CaptainTom]

Nice house.
My eyes were drawn immediately to the female subject. No wedding band ?
Single ? Very attractive. Does she like older men who are a bit on the heavy side ??

[Bobby C 01TA]

LOL @ Tom hahaha. I agree with Bryan though. The house does snatch up the image. I do like the natural look of the people though

[Wes]

Less house, more subject. I think that the location does have possibilities, though.

[toverman]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

Nice house.
My eyes were drawn immediately to the female subject. No wedding band ?
Single ? Very attractive. Does she like older men who are a bit on the heavy side ??

It looks like she prefers younger, much shorter men.

[BabyHopes]

Originally Posted by Wes

Less house, more subject. I think that the location does have possibilities, though.

I agree. Although, thanks for the heads up. It's always nice to have new shot locations to choose from and have in mind.

[MicWayWal]

I think this location is far from an ideal location. It is only a nice house. There are thousands of 'em.

IMO this is NOT a good location and background because:
First, there is no depth to the background. It is like one big painted backdrop. You could paint this on a wall in your house, canvas in a studio, or use a scene machine and have the same result except you could have better lighting.
Second, unless you have some connection to the house, it is useless as a background. Unless you are in real estate and sell these type of houses. Who would be photographed in front of someone's house unless it is the White House.
Third, there is no direction of light. Light is coming from everywhere in this open field location. This helps to make people look round and fat.
- Light coming from both sides and behind highlights the edges of our bodies. Only the best among us can tolerate that kind of lighting.
- A good direction of light creates interest and helps you better control your lighting to flatter people.
- Light coming from everywhere makes the image flat and featureless. It also creates dark raccoon eyes. This makes the eyes look lifeless. Highlights make the eyes come alive. By the way, adding a flash does not solve the problem.
Fourth, there is nothing present in the location you could use for foreground. A great location needs background AND foreground for your subject to be in between. Foreground and background create a space for your subject to reside. The only foreground I can see is the grass. This is limiting to one angle.

Please keep looking. There are wonderful locations all around us here in McKinney-Frisco-Plano. Drive around you'll find them.

[AndersFA]

Another good location for those north of Plano along Central Expy is the railroad tracks just east of 75. The reason I say north of Plano is that the DART Rail uses this track, but only runs as far north as the Parker Road Station. North of that the line is out of service. These two shots were taken in Allen at Texette/Ridgemont Drive (one road, two names) between Central Expy and Greenville Ave (this is south of Bethany Dr).

[*~Karena~*]

Nice pics!! And thanks for the detail description on the location; it's helpful...

I really like that this track is close for me AND it's not in use AND it's surround by greens...

(There's a track right outside of my apt complex, but it's used 10-20 times per day, and it's right next to a major road....blah..)

I will definitely go check this one out

[DanStar]

In Mckinney you can shoot at several venues near downtown: Chestnut Square, the Heard-Craig House, there is a nice gazebo behind the house on a parking lot, the Cotton Mill ($50/hr charge), RR tracks just east of downtown, there are also some interesting areas in the downtown area such as the fire escape off Tennessee, allyways, etc.

Finally, if you are looking for a place for boudoir photography check out the Grand Hotel.