Charlaine is a friend of an ex-workmate, and we had never met before . This to me, was a bonus - because in studio work, its not like you spend all your time photographing people you know, and to me, this gave me the opportunity to see how easy I would find it to strike up and develop a relationship with a complete stranger, and be able to make them relax in front of the camera . I'd already seen for myself that the more relaxed and at ease children especially become, the better images you can get.
However, Bless showed me that no matter how hard you try, sometimes, you just can't raise a smile . Charlaine was lovely, very friendly, and very eager to get Bless to cooperate - and Bless herself is the most beautiful little girl, with amazingly lovely big eyes - she was incredibly well behaved and cooperative, for such a young child - she sat when asked, stood when asked, turned and looked where directed - but not one proper smile did I get over the whole two hours - though she was quite happy to take my hand and even hug me, at her own instigation, so it wasn't as if she was nervous of me - her Mum later told me that from when she had been about 12 month old, Bless as soon as a camera was pointed in her direction, had refused to smile - and there was absolutely nothing that I did that could persuade her to change that habit . Even so, with such a gorgeous child, it was impossible not to get some images that I was really pleased with, when I looked at them later - so big smiles, though fabulous to have, are not always completely necessary !
This is the nearest I got to a sort of smile . . .
I also liked the following image, where Bless was leaning against a chair, which provided a much darker background . . .
And there were two images that didn't show Bless' face at all - but they captured something that I thought still made them good images - in this one she was playing with one of the hats I'd bought as props . . .
And in the next, Charlaine had joined Bless in front of the camera, and Bless gave her the biggest hug - and I just love the expression on Charlains face .
And again, towards the end of the session, Mum joined little one in front of the camera .
Charlaine also raised the question of providing more than digital images - she picked out, from the previews I showed her at the session, the image of Bless in a hat, and said she would love a huge print of it - but, she was very shocked at the prices that I gave her for having that done - at the A1 size she wanted, the cheapest I could get it printed for was £25 - which Charlaine thought was rather expensive, particularly as that didn't include framing. But, without access to trade prices, or a printer of my own that could handle images of that size, there was little I could do - so if I do decide to look at studio work in particular as a further career, I really need to find out a cost effective way of producing all sizes of prints, and frames, that offer good value to potential customers - I made no money at all from any of the sessions I did - though I was quite happy with that, because the experience it gave was a valuable reward in itself - but obviously, if I start doing this to earn a living, people are going to want prints, and I also have to factor some sort of profit into what I do - so a lot more research is needed!
Next up were Becca and Seren. Becca is an ex-workmate and a good friend, but this was the first time I had met Seren. Now, whether I was just lucky with the kids I worked with during this week, or whether I am better with working with kids than I'd thought I'd be, I don't know - but , what a little star I found in Seren (no pun on the name intended :) ), and again, I really enjoyed this session!
Again, Mum was persuaded to join Seren in front of the camera, and I was really pleased with the following images . . .
I really liked the last two of those shown above, especially - not really posed, just Mum and Daughter relaxed and laughing and completely natural . . . it sort of captured the relationship and closeness between the two, which I liked a lot.
I also caught, almost by chance, this image of Becca, by herself - she had donned the hat to persuade Seren to give it a go -
And I was really pleased with the result !
Then, Seren changed into a 'fairy princess - and boy, did she look the part!
I had again found, on reviewing the pictures that despite setting custom white balance, the background was not completely white - this was really frustrating and I edited a lot of the photographs from this session to get the bright white background I wanted.
I used a bubble machine for quite a lot of the portraits during this week - there is no doubt that it was a big hit with the kids, but with the problems I was having getting the bright white background, without resorting to photoshop, it was really difficult to not lose the 'bubbles' during editing .
In photoshop, I also chose to add some soft coloured borders to some of the images
I also deliberately persuaded Seren into one or two poses that I knew I could have fun with, later, when it came to editing . . .
Becca told me afterwards that Seren was really thrilled with the addition of the 'fairy' to the pictures.
I really enjoyed both of today's sessions - although the issue with the background coming out with a tint was frustrating, the further into the week I got, the more confident I was getting about suggesting and setting up poses and encouraging the children to relax and enjoy the sessions .
Next up: Never Work with children . . . Part 3
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