Guess what I found!

The Summer assignment packs from uni have arrived ( YAY!) and so, to make a start on one of the photography sections, yesterday we went out for a drive round, looking for the 'rural landscapes' that make up part of one of the projects.  As I've only just started on these, I'll save the blog about them for later - this is about a chance spotting of one of Britain's protected species - and a creature I haven't spotted in the wild since I was maybe 11 or 12 years old.

I was absolutely thrilled to find this little fellow, in the long grass and leaf litter, at the foot of a supporting stone pillar of a bridge, just outside of Corwen.

Its a slow worm - which is not a snake, but a limbless reptile - a lizard in fact .  This wee fellow was about 10" long, and very docile - although I was wary of actually picking him (or her ? ) up, in case of harming/scaring it, It allowed me to get incredibly close, and even stroke it gently, without moving away or showing any signs of fear.  Beautiful creature, soft and quite warm to the touch, and a lovely 'coppery brown' colour, with bright black eyes and a tiny forked tongue darting in and out.

I really enjoy it when I am lucky enough to get the chance to see and photograph different types of wildlife - but being as (in my experience) spotting creatures like this is a rare event, I am feeling very lucky to have made the acquaintance of this little chap on my travels .

Never Work with Children . . . Part 4

So - the last day of  5, in the studio.  Today I had 3 sessions booked. First thing, my lovely mate Hazel, and her two children, Declan (age 10) and Hannah (age 7). Following them would be Abbey again - but this time with two of her younger sisters, Lena and Layla. And to round off the week, Becky, a newly met fellow student, was coming in with her two youngsters, Coby (age 5) and Bella (age 2)

The session with Hazel, Declan and Hannah was sooooooooo easy - I've known them all for years, and had in fact done both Hazels engagement and wedding photographs, so all of them are very used to me pointing a camera in their direction.  Dec and Hannah are really nice kids and are absolutely great about having their photograph taken, and this session flew by.

 

Hannah also decided to dress as a 'Fairy Princess'  , with the additions of silk rose petals and holographic party poppers that I'd added to the props 

                                                                                  

And Declan decided to show how energetic he is !

 

Then some shots of the two together - these two get on pretty well, and I think this can be seen in the images I managed to get .

And once again, Mum was persuaded to join in . . . 

Thank you again, to Hazel and kids - not only for a really fun time in the studio - but also for a lovely lunch afterwards:)

Next up - Layla and Lena - and again, I have to say, I was so lucky with my models this week - these two were a pleasure to photograph :)

First, Layla . . .

And then - Lena - her Mum has sent a request that I 'try' to get her to smile 'naturally' on the photographs - admittedly she was a little tense and the smile a little forced at first - but that was easily solved by getting her to shout 'Knickers' at regular intervals - which just left her creased laughing and with a beautiful, natural, huge smile!

And again, shots of the two girls together - and later they were joined by Abbey, so I was able to take photographs of all 3

 

 I Really like the smile on Lena's face on this image .

And so onto the final session of the week - Coby and Bella.

Becky and I had only been introduced very briefly, by Claire, at the beginning of the week, so this was another opportunity to work with models that I really don't know at all - as I said before, good practise for me.


Two very adorable kids, but poor Coby had, I think, used up his supply of staying still for any length of time, in school that day - at only 5, the school day is a long, long day, as I well remember from when my own children were that age. Poor Coby wanted to play and charge round, and unfortunately a photographic studio, with all the lights and cables, isn't a safe place for a little 'un to let off steam. Because of this, this was the shortest session I  did all week, but I was pretty pleased with the results, and again, its a valuable lesson for me - its not fair to expect kiddies under 6 to be able to cope with a studio session at the end of a long day, so bookings there are best done during school holidays, or at weekends.

Such a pair of cuties, though!

I love catching expressions like the one on Bella's face in this image .

That gap-toothed smile is the sort of thing I love   to look back on with my own kids .

 Again - a very un-posed natural moment - and again, I think this sort can make the best images !

So - there ends the week - and there is a lot I have to learn from the experience.

I titled this blog 'Never Work with Children . . . ' thinking of the well known phrase - but did I find it true? .  Actually, no - I won't deny that the week was hard work . With little folk about, the first issue was safety - had to be constantly on alert, especially with those too young to understand the dangers of the hot lights and cables everywhere. And you have to balance warning the kids about this, with making each and every session fun for them - children's attention and concentration spans are much shorter than the average adults, plus you are asking them to stay on the back drop, smile most of the time, and put up with hot, flashing lights - its a lot to expect, so you really have to work at keeping them entertained, and happy.  This brings up the value of a good prop box, if you are working with kids - after this week, the list for mine runs through soft toys, building blocks, bright wooden cars and trains, dressing up clothes and hats, shades, maybe scarves and feather boa's, plus a bubble machine, party poppers and silk rose petals. For the under 2's, I need to add a couple of soft throws, maybe fake fur rugs - and these have to be washable, cos little 'uns can and do have accidents - as I was reminded a couple of times during the week, lol !  Also some sort of basket/chair for again, the very tiny, who are unable to sit unassisted .

You have to be prepared for kids who don't want to cooperate - either find a way to engage them, or let them take their time to relax and have time out when needed - because of this, its pretty much a judgement call depending on the child, as to how long the session lasts - so work fast, just in case ! You need to take your cue on how to approach the individual child from the child's own attitude - 2 year old Bless wasn't ever going to respond to me acting daft, but 2 year old Jack liked blowing raspberries and silly faces.  I guess you have to 'read' the kid pretty quickly and be prepared to go with what works for them.

I feel that the very best images I got were when the child completely relaxed, and behaved naturally - that sometimes meant big smiles, but sometimes it meant pulling tongues or gazing dreamy eyed, away from the camera, or leaping up and down like a loon - that's OK, I think you have to go with that in order to get the best images - its the expressions, rather than the poses that make the picture.  In quite a few of the images, I felt that I'd captured the emotion of the child at a certain point, and especially when the parents got involved, capturing the relationship between them and the child produced a lot of my favourite images of the week.

It was a lovely bonus to get the reaction of the parents when I'd edited and passed on the digital images to them - I felt they had done me a favour, giving their time to be my models - but, even though I can see for myself that I have a lot to learn and a fair way to go in this genre, so many of them gave me great feedback and were thrilled with the images I gave them. Children's photography may not be seen as very 'glamorous' or even as 'art' - but it produces some precious memento's for the parents, and there is a lot of satisfaction in them being very happy with what you produce. 

If I head in the direction of studio photography, including children's portraiture, by way of a career, then its possible it will be down the self employed route. I've researched the prices offered locally, and run a few informal 'polls' amongst friends, to find out what they consider good value and a reasonable amount to pay.  I've costed things out, and come up with a figure that most seem to feel is a bargain, for either a CD or memory stick of digital images, that will leave me with a reasonable profit - but most have said that they would also like the option of prints, and that's where the costs rocket - OK, you can nip into a supermarket and order prints, but the quality isn't great. Home printing is not cheap, and although I have an A3 printer, several parents have said they would like the option of bigger sizes - or canvas prints.  The cheapest prices I can come up with, having no access to trade at the moment, for really good quality prints, if I am to offer at a 'reasonable price' leaves little room for a decent profit - so that's a problem I am going to have to find a way round.

I also never got to the bottom of the issue with the 'tint' on the background - the image on my camera was spot on, but once it was viewed on the computer, that 'blue' or 'grey' tinge was there, and I need to work at sorting that to avoid hours spent editing!

I owe a Huge Thank You to all my 'models' from that week - I learnt lots and being honest, enjoyed every minute of it - thank you for your time and your patience, and for the lovely comments you fed back to me - it was all very appreciated:)


Oh - and in case anyone is wondering, I am not yet ready to try out the second part of the well know phrase - "or Animals" - just yet:)

Never Work with Children . . . Part 3

Today I had one session booked with a family - Lindsey, her husband Dylan (who would join us at the end of the session) and their two boys, Jack and Harri. The session I had arranged for the afternoon had again, fallen through, so I quickly filled that with my daughter and her friend Abbey, rather than waste it - and besides, Abbey is due to spend a year studying in the USA from September, and I thought it would be nice to get some shots of her and Kirsty together, as I knew they would miss each other during the year apart.

Lindsey had contacted me a few days before the session, worried that Jack, who is 2, would be unlikely to cooperate - but, as I explained to her, if I was doing children's photography as a career, typical two year old's would be part and parcel of that, and the experience would be valuable - besides which, having had 3 kids of my own, none of whom were angels at that age, I assured her that as far as I was concerned, there were absolutely no worries.

As it turned out, both Jack and little brother Harri - who was my youngest model of the week, at just 3 months - were both wonderful, and again, I really enjoyed myself working with them.

Lindsey had very thoughtfully brought a selection of Jacks favourite toys with her - and this really brought home to me the importance of having a 'prop' set for this type of photography.  I loved the images I got with his favourite soft toy, with the building blocks and with the brightly coloured cars - all things I now plan to add to a 'prop' box of my own.

Next up was photographing little Harri - and here was hi-lighted the need for even more props, especially for babies this young - I really would need to include maybe a bouncy chair, and perhaps some sort of basket, to support little ones to 'sit up' when they are too young to manage that by themselves.

Now to try for some of the boys together - and again, I was hampered by the lack of a way to sit Harri upright, comfortably and safely, though I did manage several shots I was fairly happy with.

 

Mum then joined the boys for a few shots

 

Again, I found that most of the shots I preferred were pretty 'natural' - let Mum and kids just relax and play around, and snap away- there is something about the way that pictures like that seem to really capture the relationship between Mum and child, that I really like.

Dad, Dylan was able to join us for the last bit of the session - and I think the last couple of pictures in this group were probably my favourite of the day !

I feel I learned an awful lot from this session, so big thanks again to Lindsey and family .

Then in came Kirsty and Abbey                                                                                                               

 

These two have been friends for around 12 years - and I think that the friendship shows in the images

       I also like these two individual photographs I took of  Kirsty .
          

Next up: Never Work with Children . . .  Part 4 .