Children's Portraiture

I  am a children’s photographer.  My specialty is providing children’s and family portraits for younger children, newborn through kindergarten.  What I do is essential to my customers, my employees, the many businesses that supply the goods and services my business uses and, of course, to me and my family.  Without what I do, many others would be deprived of what I provide and lose the benefits of providing what I need.  This makes everyone wealthier and healthier.  Happy, economically well-off people live longer. That should make me and my business essential.

This can be said of all businesses and consumers within an economy.  What every business does Continue reading “My Work is Essential”

A parent at a child care center remarked, “You’re treating them like real people.”  This was many years ago and I had never thought of phrasing it exactly like that.  But, yes, that described my approach well.  I had evolved. It had started many years before and I can’t say exactly when.

I do remember emphasizing using a soft but normal tone of voice in my classes and in field training sometime in the 80’s.  Some of the more “experienced” photographers resisted.  These were the new recruits from other photography companies.  The ones who had been working for me for a while had seen it work.  It was different from the way many of them were trained.  The way the major companies trained photographers in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s sometimes  involved a lot of baby talk and high pitched tones.  Frankly, it turned off a lot of kids.  Some of them thought we were just plain weird and it made them more difficult to control and pose.

An example of treating them like real people might be discussing hair styles and skirt lengths with infant girls or workout methods with one year old boys.  “Are you into free weights or machines?  You look like a free weight guy to me.” All of this is delivered in a normal tone of voice, soft but not artificial.

With younger toddlers and infants, I don’t expect an answer, but I do wait for a response.  The response may be a smile or even a gurgle, but I continue just as if I were having a conversation with a real people.  Because I am.

The children respond well.  They feel like they are being respected and they pay attention.  They are easier to control and put into the poses that have become my style.  Examples of this approach can be seen on my YouTube channel.

Announcement (a big deal)

This week I signed a short term lease on space in the Rimrock Mall in Billings, Montana.  I will be testing and developing a new children’s portrait studio concept for the next three months.  I will make a special effort to  post on this blog more frequently in the next few weeks with a greater concentration on guiding parents.  If the studio is what has brought you to this site, Welcome.  To access my YouTube channel, enter “Children’s Portraiture” in the search bar of YouTube.

A big part of getting ready for Picture Day can include practicing your smile.  This can be fun but it may result in less than great expressions.

The most difficult children to photograph aren’t the children that are afraid of the camera.  The most difficult children are those that stare at the lens with a cheesy, pasted-on smile.   A child that has had bad experiences with photography in the past can get past that with a little patience from the photographer. Continue reading “Picture Day for Parents – Smiles”

I approach classroom groups the same way I photograph every portrait sitting.  Engage the subject.  Elicit an expression.  Capture it.  Classroom groups and family groups are different in that you have a number of subjects that you are working with at the same time.  You have to keep them all engaged.

With any classroom group I usually prefer to put all of the children in place myself.  This gives me more control.  They are Continue reading “Infant Classroom Groups”

Telling someone to smile in a portrait sitting can cause them to tighten up to an extent that recovery is impossible.  It can end the sitting.  Telling a child to smile and not realizing the child is tightening up can cause a child to be reluctant to be photographed again.  It has caused some of the worst parent-child meltdowns that I have seen.  I’ve seen some doozies.

Do I ever tell anyone to smile?  Yes.  After I have an established relationship with an older subject and they are relaxed I will sometimes try to coach a particular expression out of them.  This is only with a subject at least in their mid teens and after I have all I think I need.  Even with an adult it can end a sitting. Continue reading “Never tell a subject to “smile””

What is a portrait photographer? Sounds kind of basic doesn’t it. But something happened that made me think it was time to address this.

More than forty years ago I developed a few descriptions of our role that I used in training programs for new photographers and helping more experienced photographers grow. What exactly was it that we were doing? Then a few decades back I ran across a description from a photographer from more than a century ago. It was Continue reading “Portrait Photographer, Our Role”

A good way to stir up controversy in a gathering of photographers is to bring up whether or not a photographer should sell the digital files. The practices of photographers range from those whose primary business is the delivery of files to those who only sell prints and never allow the images out of their control, even for online viewing.

There is not one “right” answer. This is what I do and why I do it. It may not be what you should do. Continue reading “Selling Digital Files”

Stranger danger!  It’s a catchy phrase.  And it appeals to a parent’s most basic instinct, protecting their children.  It drives me nuts.

Some children are more apprehensive  about strangers than others.  It is useful for me to know anything about the child that the parent or child care staff can tell me about a child.  This frequently tells me as much about the adult Continue reading “Stranger Danger”

One of the most common questions I get from photographers is how do you talk to a child? What do you say?  Like any thing else it gets easier with practice.  The most important thing is to remember the Golden Rule. Treat them like you would want to be treated.  Treat them like real people. (They are.) Treat them with respect, but have fun.  Don’t be rude.  Humor does not have to be rude.

With practice you will develop a routine Continue reading “Talking to a Child”