One of the questions I get asked all the time as a child portrait artist is how I capture such natural expressions. People tell me all the time that when they look at my portraits, that they feel like they know what that person is like. For me there is no higher complement. After getting my BFA 25 years ago and working all that time since as a portraitist I know that I am fully capable of producing a portrait in any style I would choose to shoot. I know I can artfully render a photojournalistic style image,make the colors pop,shoot in grimy urban settings and so on but these also become more about the place and style these days than really telling you anything important about the person.I am a big believer in the old adage KISS. Keep it simple silly. SO that’s what I do. I keep it simple but Most Importantly I keep it real. So if this interests you here are a few ways to keep it simple and real with your own kiddos and hopefully create images that fully express who your child is.
!. Never Ever Ever say smile. Or Cheese. When you do this your child will at best grit his teeth and give you that big fake okay here is my picture face. At worst he or she will pout and do the exact opposite because you want them to smile and they know it,and if they are two they really like to show you who’s boss. Here is an example of what you can get by not asking them to smile.
2. Don’t be trapped by the idea that a smile is always best. Some of my favorite portraits I have taken are of little ones not smiling. You will be able to get that smile the rest of their lives but the wide eye innocent look only lasts for a little while.
3. Get out of your “mommy – daddy” mode. The only time in my life where I had a disastrous result when photographing a child was with my own.Hannah was 6 and I forced her into a dress she hated and made her go out into our gardens on a hot humid day and told her to sit in the swing. I was totally in my mom role and found myself getting more upset by the moment as she whined and pulled at her dress and told me she was going to faint. The last straw finally came when I decided to move from the swing over to the lily pond and try to take the last to frames of film of her on the bridge. SHE by then was telling me she felt like she was going to throw up and faint. At my wits end I told her to put her toes in the water to cool off. The next thing I knew my darling daughter had slipped on a wet stone and ended up in the pond. Needless to say I never got her portrait in the little white dress in our garden. This was never in “Hurricane Hannah’s” personality and when I went with the flow with her I got amazing portraits.
4. Be in the moment. One of the reasons I love working with young children is they are such great teachers and entertainers. When you enter in to their world you you enter into a Most special place. Their world if filled with awe and magical thinking and is such a fun place to be. When you establish a real rapport with your little one they forget about you taking their picture and you get their true expressions. One caveat here, children are very intuitive and they know when a person is being genuine, so be real with them and you will be amazed at what they will give back.
5. Keep them entertained. Play games.Sing silly songs. Be in the moment…anticipate and always be ready to snap that shutter.
I remember when my Dad tried so hard to teach me golf. He was a golf fanatic and really really wanted one of his daughters to learn the sport. I was a real daddy’s girl and wanted to learn to play to be able to make him proud and spend time with him. Well no matter how I tried to get in the golf stance..head down,contort your body swing the club and always keep your eye on the ball… it never ever felt natural to me. I may have been okay at the sport if I had spent many,many,many hours practicing but I did not love it. Truth be told I did’nt even like it. So if all these tips and techniques to take better photos of your children seems like hard work bring them here, because I did find something that I really, really loved doing and have spent my life practicing hitting that shutter at just the right time to hit that hole in one. I think all that hard work paid off. What do you think?
