one tough shoot (more kids!)

Elaine

I went to a friend's house to take some shots of her two daughters...22 months and 3 months. I'm quite sure they made a pact with each other to not have picture-taking-behavior at the same time as one another, just to put their mom and me to the test! :huh It turned into a "real life" sort of photo shoot! Unfortunately, the mom really wanted that JCPenney's sort of Christmas picture, which I've told her a number of times I do not aim to take (not that I'm even better than that yet...I just don't aim for that end goal) and won't be offended if she goes there, but she readily admits the stress of dealing with two little munchkins in a studio would about do her in...so we tried our best! This was my first shoot with my new gear, and really my first time trying to shoot with a little one too young to sit on her own. I don't want to collect a bunch of props, but I was kinda at a loss as to what to do with her, especially when big sis wanted nothing to do with her! These are all natural light.

Range of emotions...
1


2


3


4


5


Mom propped her up with the bear...at this point we were just going for anything!
6


7


This was the only sort of shot we could get of them together...a sheet draped over a chair that blocked the tree and seeing the bottoms of shoes do not make the photog happy. :rolleyes
8


By the end, this is how we all felt! :rofl
9


The rest of the gallery:
http://e-heasley.smugmug.com/gallery/3969902/2/232148295#P-1-20

Thanks for any C&C!

CTUphoto

I feel your pain.....
I love shooting candids of kids, but I feel your pain in terms of getting them to cooperate for 'studio-style' sittings. In spite of the challenges, I'd say you got a pretty decent set, especially considering it's all natural lighting. That's an amazing range of facial expressions too. Quite funny. You can almost see the story of your challenges with them unfolding in the series you posted.:D

PineapplePhoto

#2 and # 4 ... I feel your pain too...

We shot thousands (28,000) of christmas (Santa) pictures this year and one thing that doesn't help is parents forcing their kids to do something they do not want... i'd never seen so many crying babies scared of Santa.

And parents making them...

urbanaries

PineapplePhoto wrote:

#2 and # 4 ... I feel your pain too...

We shot thousands (28,000) of christmas (Santa) pictures this year and one thing that doesn't help is parents forcing their kids to do something they do not want... i'd never seen so many crying babies scared of Santa.

And parents making them...

Elaine,
What a tough shoot. It is tough to take the child's lead when there is so much expectation and pressure from the parent for a certain outcome. I have had parents suggest propping kids up before but it rarely looks natural (or makes the kid happy), and if they really can't sit up, what is the point? I do really love the background of the tree, you have that DOF and lighting nailed!

I really love #5. The child is natural, content and beautiful! To me that is peaceful and that's what Christmas is SUPPOSED to represent !

I don't want to hijack Elaine's thread, but I really do feel these kids pain on the Santa issue. I shot at our playgroup last night, they hired a Santa to come to one of our houses. Only one of the 11 children there gave a flying hoot about Santa and Mrs. Claus, but the parents were all but forcing these screaming toddlers to comply. WHY? for what? My kid was totally content in the next room playing with his toy, but another parent kept coming up to me saying "do you want me to go talk to harrison and see if I can get him to come in here?" Was she going to get a buzz seeing my kid on Santa's lap? I really don't get it. Someone please explain it to me so I don't scar my kid by not having Santa pictures for every year he is alive.

djspinner2k

I feel your pain man.

I was asked to shoot a family with 4 kids all under the age of 2. cousins I hope. They said they never had the opportunity to get them all together for a picture.

I had to turn them down. I can barely get my 2 years old to sit still. 4 would be a nightmare.

Elaine

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one! Thanks for the empathetic responses! We tried to get one of the little one laying down on the little table with the "big" one standing at her head, maybe kissing her head or something, but she's going through some sibling jealousy right now and just kept pushing the baby away or moving out of frame. She does like to sit in that chair, so that was what we resorted to, although I think having a 3 month old sitting up is kinda strange.

I don't get the Santa picture thing AT ALL. I can not imagine standing in line to get a picture taken with a guy in a red suit that will probably scare the child anyway, and it's not like they will carry any memories away from it...but the parents will have memories of a stressful afternoon! Yeah! Not to rain on anyone else's parade, but that phenomenon is a mystery to me!

I hope the mom can find something to like in the gallery, even with the sad faced ones. I do like that we captured a range of expressions (real life), and I was happy with most of the lighting.

Icebear

Call me a cornball
. . . but I like #7.

leaforte

You gotta love that look!

Elaine

Icebear wrote:

. . . but I like #7.

Well, I do too! She's a very cute baby!

Elaine

leaforte wrote:

You gotta love that look!

Yeah...that's one stubborn almost 2-year-old look, for sure! A kind of, "Woe is me, my life is soooo hard..." kind of look!

DavidS

Kids are tough. I love #7. The expression is great and I love the bear in the shot.