Never Work with Children . . . Part 2

Day 3 in the studio, and again, I had 2 sessions booked - the first with Charlaine, and her 2 year old daughter, Bless;   And the second with Becca - and her 6 (very nearly 7) year old daughter, Seren.

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

 

 

Never Work with Children . . . Part 1

I'm lucky enough to chat to a couple of professional photographers occasionally, and on the subject of studio portraiture, I'd heard it said that photographing children is an area that is not as easy as it looks. Being as over the first year at uni, I'd really enjoyed getting to grips with studio work, I decided to see if I could book the uni studio, for a few days, over the Summer break, and see if I could get some experience in this area of photography. Five whole days booked, and I put the word out amongst fellow 'Mums', that if they would spare me a couple of hours, use of their kids and permission to use any resultant photographs in this blog and maybe a portfolio, I'd provide them with however many good digital images I could get out of the sessions.  Very quickly, the 5 days were filled with a minimum of two sessions a day, with my friend and fellow student, Dawn, taking two of the sessions so she could also practise studio work.  First lesson learned, however - the fact that the studio was booked from a Monday to Friday, during term time, meant that an awful lot of parents who were more than willing to be my 'guinea pigs' were unable to take part, due to school hours - those that could, were restricted to very short sessions, from 3.45pm onwards.

Second lesson - with kids, arrangements can change at the very last minute - the two sessions booked for the first day had to be cancelled, at very short notice, in one instance due to the child in question being poorly - one of the pitfalls to be noted and accepted as part and parcel of children's portraiture.

Rather than waste the sessions, I spent the time taking some photographs of Dawn . . .

. . . Then, for the afternoon, phoned my oldest daughter - who volunteered her friend Abbey as a model !

 

I'd used a high key light set up, and on reviewing the photographs when I got home was a bit disappointed. Checking the images on the actual camera, the background looked as 'white' as I wanted - on Colins advice, had set wb to flash - looking at them on the pc screen at home, there was a definite 'blue' tint to the background. Easy enough to put right, either with curves, levels or dodge - but annoying! Once I had edited them, I was fairly pleased with the images, however, and very much looking forward to the next days sessions.

The first 'session' was booked to Dawn, and her models were Becky and her 18 month old daughter, Sophie.  This being Dawns session, I stuck to helping with the lights and observing - and still learnt a lot!  Sophie is the cutest little girl imaginable, with a mile wide smile - but, like most babes of that age, she was also the definition of perpetual motion!  We had a bubble machine going, a selection of hats and Becky had brought some of Sophies toys - but OH boy - when in a nice new place, with lots of bright lights and things to explore - what 18 month old is going to sit nice for a photograph? Lol - not Sophie, and not I suspect, many others.  The session was hard work, though definitely fun, and I was impressed at the number of good images Dawn managed to get.

The next session was mine - a fellow student from Applied arts, Claire, had very kindly volunteered her 9 year old son, Callum.  Now, as the mother of a 15 year old boy, I thought in advance, that this session would be quiet hard work - my own son acts as though he is allergic to the camera, and the sight of one pointed in his direction usually prompts his hand to cover his face immediately.  What a nice surprise Callum turned out to be.  He turned up, with a big smile, several changes of clothes - and props, by way of shades and a selection of hats. He was completely cooperative, and an absolute pleasure to photograph - many thanx to both him, and Claire - I really enjoyed this session.

A couple of shots I later turned black and white . . .

But one of my favourite shots from the day was taken at the end of the session, Claire joined Cal in front of the camera - by this time, both were relaxed and seemed to be enjoying the session, and this shot I loved because it was so natural and so full of fun .

Once again, at home, despite the images on the camera showing a bright white background - that annoying blue tint!  Hmmmmm - more experimentation with the WB, I think, for the next session!  It also started to gel with me today that the longer you spend getting to know your 'models', and the more effort you put into making them relax, the better the results - as the session with Callum went on, the more 'into' it he got, and the more I was getting natural expressions, smiles and laughs - which made for much better images.

So - coming next  'Never Work with Children - part 2.

Forever Blowing Bubbles ...

Take a day out, checking out locations for a film project,  add that fab light just before rain,  combine with a friend who carries blow bubbles in her car boot, and then mix some of the resulting photographs around in photoshop for an hour or so, and this is what you get . . .

So, I needed a Photo-Fix . . .

With one thing and another, it seems like an age since I got out for a few hours, with the camera, just for the fun of it.  After several planned trips had been aborted - due to crappy weather and my kids rather active social life (and their need for a chauffeur), yesterday I finally got out for 2 or 3 hours, and DH, youngest DD and self headed to Ty Mawr country park, for a wander and for me to see what I could see through the lens.

 I really like llama's - so stuck up!

This fellow - a pot bellied pig called Rusty - seemed rather attracted to the camera . . .

         
           In fact - he got a little too close!















The 'Petting animals' are all very well, but there was so much else around that I wanted to focus on  . . . I swapped to my 70-300mm lens, set the macro function and set up the tripod . . . so many 'little' details make up the whole landscape, and I wanted to focus on them.

And once I started snapping the wild flowers, then I started to notice the insect life - over the last two years or so, I've become fascinated by the detail and fabulous colours and patterns in the macro wildlife around me. I make frequent trips during the Spring/Summer, to various locations that I know of, just to look for the insect life, but this is the first time I've specifically looked to see whats on offer at Ty Mawr.

 

Ty Mawr was pretty packed, with lots of young families enjoying the sunshine, but we did also manage to find a quiet spot on the river - and there some of my favourite insect life obligingly came 'out to play.

These are Damsel Flies - I'm no expert, but I can tell the difference between them and Dragon flies by their eyes - Damsel's eyes are placed either side of the head, whereas with Dragons, their eyes look forward and 

are close together, actually touching, or almost touching each other.   I think their colours are just fabulous - iridescent and vibrant, and I can - and do - loose hours photographing these beautiful creatures.    

As mentioned in a previous blog, during the last uni module, we were set the task of creating a 'joiner' - at one point during the day, gazing at the viaduct, I decided that it might just make a good subject for a 'joiner' - so spent a while taking dozens and dozens of shots, to see if I could create one - usually, when attempting this type of photography, I visit my 'subject' several times, over 2 or 3 days, to capture the differences in the sky and the light - knowing that I wouldn't be able to re-visit Ty Mawr for  a while, it was an interesting challenge for me to see if I could get what I wanted in just one visit . 

I was pretty happy with the result !

I've managed to book the uni photography studio for several sessions, concentrating on portraiture, for later on this month, and I also have a few more photo-days planned. Add to that, a couple of film projects in the pipeline, and hopefully, I'll have plenty to do - and keep me busy - with one sort of camera or another, for the rest of the Summer break - so there will be a few more blogs to come.