When this question comes up, I always remember the teacher from my photography class in high school. She always told us that if we get one shot that we consider amazing on a single roll of film, we should feel very blessed and that more realistic expectations would be to expect one amazing one from the class. It’s something I still keep in mind years later.

If you make use of a leash (or arm) to help with herding (or branch out into other critters), take a photo without the human or critters in it also to help with removing the human and leash in post.

- Practice with friends/family if any are local or when you/they visit.

- Practice on coworkers by offering new headshots or seeing if anyone wants to let you practice with some family portraits of their families.

- Join your local photographer’s Facebook group or a joint model and photographer’s group. Post asking for a portrait exchange or a time for photos exchange.

If it’s not pushing boundaries too much, you could try the “almost touch”.

- Reaching out with space between fingers as if you’re trying to hold hands, but aren’t.

- Palm to palm with air between.

- Leaning towards each other on a rail of some sort such as a bridge or something. Keep space between.

​

You could also use props. Since you’re thinking beach:

- Each holding one end of a conch shell or something else beachy. Or just use a simple rose. Something so you’re close enough to touch the same object and have that connection for the eye to follow, but still aren’t touching each other.

- Walking while carrying something between you, one hand on each side such as a sand bucket handle or a boat rope or something else beachy

- Lay on a beach blanket with space between you, but leaning towards each other reading a book.

- Build a sandcastle together! (Or write words like “marry me”, “just engaged”. Perhaps build a sand diamond ring?)

- Throwing a frisbee between each other. No need to catch if your eye-hand coordination is awful. The pictures won’t be able to tell you missed! ;)

- Embrace the “down on one knee” vibe, but do something unexpected like having one partner present a shell, crab, or some other natural beach object to the other.

The best advice I was ever given for portraits is to get someone laughing and amused. If they’re having fun, their smile will be more natural and relaxed and, as a result, look more like themselves. A forced smile won’t look as natural as one where the person being photographed is enjoying it.