A Perfect Present for Dad {a child portrait session}

16 May 2012

A few weeks ago, I received an email asking if I could help arrange a secret portrait session for a 1-year old and her mum.  I was thrilled as I love shooting children at this age, and more than happy to help (I just ADORE surprises!).  So one cloudy weekday morning, with dad away, I snuck over to their home.  Our rain dance antics kept things dry long enough for some gorgeous shots in the lane.  When the downpour finally started, we went inside for snacks and a bit of dress-up in the bedroom. Little V was a star and gave us so many beautiful shots.

Mum kept Dad in the dark until he arrived at my house for the viewing session.  Boy was he surprised!  Even though he said he normally didn’t like surprises, he loved seeing these portraits of his gorgeous wife and daughter.

Father’s Day will be here soon.  Do you have a Dad who needs a nice surprise? Give me a call. I’d love to help arrange a secret portrait session for you and the kids…or for the entire family.

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Mushrooms and Child Portraits

11 May 2012

Mushrooms:  Brown. Boring? And every so slightly covered in dirt.  I must admit, I have never before photographed a mushroom before.  But yesterday, something made me do it…Just before I popped them into the chicken stew (which was yummy, by the way.)

And though I appreciate a pretty mushroom photo, full of bokeh from the rain-spattered window, I appreciate even more the photo that it helped me to get.  And the reminder that sometimes, the best way to take a photo of your child is to NOT take it.

You see, as I was cooking (and being photographically inspired by fungi), Phoebe was eating her snack at the side counter. I told her I was going to photograph the mushrooms.  She watched me do it…and then watched me put the camera down.  Suddenly, she said, ‘Look at me Mama! Take my photo.’ And voila:

Another mushroom photo lead to more Phoebe posing:

(though I’m not sure Harry was too pleased to be included…)

So how can you get your children excited by your camera? This may sound over-simple but…Involve them, and don’t TRY to take their photo.

1. Ask them what you should photograph. Pick an object in the room and set up a still life shot.  It doesn’t really matter what it is: coffee cup, apple, flower, stuffed toy.  Let your child place it somewhere and take a few shots of it. Make this a game and do it often.

2. Show them the images on the back of the camera.  (Kids love to see what you are creating. Dads love this too!)

3. Let your child press the shutter. Phoebe has one of my old point-and-shoot cameras.  She takes lots of photos of the floor and the ceiling.  And sometimes some of half my face. She loves it.

4. Be excited by what you are doing…or at least, don’t keep your enthusiasm to yourself.  Enthusiasm is infectious.

5.  Ask.  Always ask your child if you can take his picture.  If he says no, then respect the answer.  Sometimes, you will get a yes.  :)

Do you have any other suggestions or ideas that have worked for you?  Please share them in the comments below.

Here’s to mushrooms and children.  Have a wonderful weekend!

ps…it’s actually sunny here! Who-hoo! :)

 

 

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Misguided Camping and a Pair of Wellies…

4 May 2012

Finally, after ten years in the UK, I am the proud owner of a pair of Hunter wellies. They are black, glossy and impervious to rain and all kinds of mud and muck. How I love them! How I can’t believe it took a camping trip to make me buy them!

But after living through the UK’s wettest April in history, I wasn’t prepared to risk anything.  And I’m glad I didn’t.  The dire forecast did come true on our camping weekend.  We saw the sun only on our arrival and as we were packing up to leave.  We were soaked, frozen and tossed by the wind.  Luckily we chose Featherdown camping…and so…we had fun.

PS. If you’ve never tried Featherdown, I highly recommend it.  Cooking on a wood stove. Spending the evening in candlelight. Sleeping in a real bed.  Lots of animals to meet and feed…Perfect for kids.  Comfy for adults.  What more can you want??….oh yes, the sun!!

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A Baby Boy and his Dad: A Newborn Portrait Session

1 May 2012

Fathers and his sons.  They always have special relationships.  But this Dad and Baby G have an extra-special bond:  Baby G arrived so quickly that Dad had to deliver him.  On his own. At home. In the middle of the night. The story sounded quite intense but Dad looked so very proud telling it…

I very much enjoyed getting to know this family.  Even at two weeks, Baby G had decided that sleeping just wasn’t for him.  We got lots of open-eyed shots and great expressions…

Here’s to fathers and all that they do for their children.

 

 

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A Three-Year Old World…

24 April 2012

To be blatantly honest, this three-year old world has caught me by surprise.  I was ready for two…those TERRIBLE twos.  Guess what…they never happened.  But three, oh my goodness…

Tantrums, talking back, hitting, throwing and yelling ‘No!’. Oh yes, these happen regularly in my house.  And did I mention the whining?

But this tumultuous world also has it’s gifts:  We have story time and she ‘reads’ to me. We make art. She draws, then folds, then tapes paper into little packages.  Each morning, she brings me a muslin and a cuddly toy to hold.  She chooses plates and silverware and puts them on the table. We find fairies in the house. Sometimes they are the cause of all the naughtiness. And sometimes they join us for breakfast. In this three-year old world, we have best friends. We have walks and lunches and she asks to hold my hand.

Perhaps three is like our recent weather. Rainy, stormy and changeable with swaths of amazing color and beauty…

 

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Please Mama, put your camera away…

18 April 2012

If you’ve been following me on Flickr, you know that I’ve been working on a 366 project of my daughter.  Most days, I take her photo.  Yes, sometimes I miss a day. And yes, sometimes I just can’t resist shooting a pretty flower but Phoebe is my muse…and my subject.  But what if she doesn’t want to be? 

This weekend I came to the sad realisation that she was getting GOOD at avoiding my lens.  After three months of almost constant camera-in-her-face, she knows when I turn the Nikon on. And she looks everywhere but at me.  Or, she freezes her expression into a vacant no-one-is-home look. That girl can turn her eyes off in an instant.

Perhaps it is only me, I wondered? But when she declined to have a good friend take her picture, I knew something had to change.

I truly believe that photography should be fun…for everyone! Photography is about catching the best bits of life: the love, the detail, the emotion and the connection that we want to remember. Cameras are not torture devices.  And no matter how good the light, or how special the moment, I don’t use mine in that way.

So…my 366 will no longer be just about Phoebe.  It will be more about my life and all of the things in it.  I hope, hope, hope Phoebe will feature happily and frequently.  But only if she wants to do so.

Last night, she surprised me by asking me to take her photo.  Save for straightening her hat, I didn’t direct or guide her.  She made her own faces. I showed her the images on the back of the camera. And she asked me to take a few more.  And then we were done. It was time for bed. And that was enough…

 

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Baby Girl – A Newborn Portrait Session

13 April 2012

Hello! It is sooo good to be back to the blog.  The last two weeks have been crazy busy with Easter, school holidays and not one, but two beautiful newborn shoots.  I’m so happy to share the first with you today.

How I loved meeting one-week old baby M!  With all of her dark hair, her unstoppable appetite, and coming in just under 8 pounds, she reminded me so much of my own daughter.

Baby M had a sense of humour and perfect timing…she covered both Mum and Dad with the unthinkable.  (Thank goodness Mum and Dad were very relaxed about it all.)  However, Baby M then made up for her transgressions by sleeping quite soundly for me.  Her big sister was adorable too.  And though rather roughly affectionate with the baby, she was very happy to help her Mum with the nappies.

BTW, isn’t that antique trunk absolutely stunning! How I would love to have one…It made the perfect prop….Enjoy. :)

 

 

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Sisters….A Portrait Session

28 March 2012

Do you have a sister? I do. The older I get, the more I realise how special it is that I have one.  My sister has been there through it all…the playing, the fighting, the road trips, the long distance phone calls, the advice sessions, the sorrow and the joys. She’s become the world’s best Auntie and how I wish the physical distance between us was not so great.

Recently, I shot a special sister session. It was special to me because I’ve watched these two girls grow up.  I used to read them bedtime stories…and now they are beautiful teens.

Here’s to sisters…and everything that they are…

 

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5 tips for Phenomenal Cropping

22 March 2012

As photographers, we try to crop in camera (ie. capture the image as it should look) to reduce post-production time.  We zoom with our lenses, or we zoom with our feet, to perfectly frame each image every time, right? Smiles…

All of you Mum’s out there know, that especially when shooting children, there sometimes isn’t time to to crop perfectly in camera.  Our children move fast.  We need to move fast with our cameras to get our shot.  And then we use our crop tool to fix things afterwards.

But supposing you had the most angelic children in the world, who moved in slow motion?  Supposing YOUR children (ha! mine doesn’t!) happily posed for you so that you could crop perfectly in camera?  Even if this were the case, the crop tool is still a very powerful and necessary tool.

Cropping can help make an image more powerful.  Cropping can help you to better tell your story. Cropping can turn ho-hum into wow.

Here are two examples…and 5 tips for powerful, creative cropping.

1.  Before cropping an image, ask yourself, ‘What is the story in this image?’  The crop should enhance the story.  It should lead our eye into, or in the direction of the story.

2. Use the magic Rule of Thirds: Divide your image into three vertical and three horizontal sections.  When cropping, place key elements (ie. the eyes, or the horizon) on one of these lines.

3. Crop last in the editing process. Since I use Aperture and Photoshop for my post-processing. I do all of my editing in Photoshop, then crop in Aperture…this preserves the original image…just in case I need to change the crop later.

4. Be careful not to crop through hands, lower arms or shins.  This ‘amputates’ your subject.

5. Play.  Play with different crop ratios.  Sometimes the ‘right’ crop might just surprise you.

Good luck…and happy cropping!

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A Day Out at London Zoo

20 March 2012

London Zoo.  What a place of fascination!  From my very first trip to London, nearly 15 years ago….when I traveled on business, to stay on the edge of Regent’s park…and ran some mornings through the park, up Primrose Hill by the monkeys and the giraffes watching out at the people…I have wondered how it would be. After all, a zoo…in the middle of a city?

Last weekend, finally, I took my wondering to the zoo…with my very big lens and my daughter. And actually, it was a wonderful day out. Phoebe adored the animals. She pet the goats. She laughed at the monkeys. She obsessed over seeing the ‘mingos and lamented missing the butterflies.  If I ask her now, she still says that her favourite animal was the bunny (yes, a regular old, garden-variety bunny) but she remembers the rest fondly too.

I stumbled across a quote by Thomas French:  ’Despite all their flaws, zoos wake us up. They invite us to step outside our basic assumptions…they shake us into recognising the possibilities….’  Indeed.

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