Photo Challenge week 34 Portrait: Child

My daughter has been centre stage for so many of the portraits in this challenge, but what can I say? She's cute!

Light Testing - Home Photography Studio Bridgnorth

 Figuring out a studio set up that I'm happy with has and continues to be an ongoing process for me. My space is very limited which restricts the amount of equipment that I can use and therefor effects the kinds of images that I can take. It's incredibly frustrating and it put me off really spending any time with my studio gear because I couldn't get the results that I wanted. But with a cake smash coming up and after looking over my space with scrutiny, trying to decide if I could rearrange the area to utilise the more baby friendly natural light, I had an epiphany. If I placed the backdrop in a different position to accommodate the natural light, I might lose some space in terms of distance between myself and the subject, but I'd gain a new light source, more width and therefor more space to add modifiers where I couldn't before and with my newer lenses, distance wasn't necessarily an issue I couldn't work around. It was worth a try.

So as always, before the cake smash I tested out the set up with Rory, and I was so pleased with the results! When previously I would shove the backdrop at the furthest end of the room to give myself adequate distance, I brought it forwards, opening up the space for a fill light, reflector and giving the subject far more space to move around. I think the original set up will still be perfect for headshots, and full-body portraits with adults, as I can control the light and my own movement is more important than the model's, but for kids and shooting lower to the ground, this is great and I can't wait to find an excuse to use it again!

Esmee's first birthday cakesmash photoshoot

This little munchkin is Esmee, who for as long as I've known her has loathed my camera. I try not to take it personally. But as it was her birthday, we put together a little cakesmash shoot to celebrate, because who doesn't love cake?

The most complicated thing about working with babies is that it's so difficult to make them feel at ease in a bizarre situation. We spend so much of our time teaching them to be wary of anything unfamiliar, to eat neatly, and then here I am trying to convince them mashing their hands in a cake is a fun idea. The lights are weird, the camera is weird, and everyone is watching them.
 

Some kids are completely comfortable in front of the camera, while others take longer to get used to it and you can never know which way it's going to go until the time comes. So since Esmee got a little stage fright, I decided to scrap the flash and use natural light instead, and after letting her eat her crisps for a bit and with Daddy nearby for reassurance she gradually relaxed and we got some really sweet photographs. Working with babies is always a challenge and takes time but in the end it's always worth it. They take the best pictures!

 

Kids

On Saturday we went to visit Rory's cousins and I got a chance to test out my newest lens on some fast moving subjects. I always think kids are so much fun to photograph when they're doing their own thing instead of making them sit still. Just look at these faces!  :D

Super Girl

I can think of no better way to spend a morning than to be dressed up as a superhero and run around in the sunshine!

 

 

Photo Challenge Week 21 Artistic: Fantasy

My daughter's first imaginary friend was a pixie/ type creature called the 'Spiderwitch' who was born of a mispronunciation of a book in her bedroom and who she believed lived in a knot of wood in the floor. The single creature quickly became a whole species of mischievous, fairylike creatures and armed with a torch or her Spiderwitch spotting eyepiece we'd go looking for them ever time we went into the woods. For this week's photo challenge 'fantasy' theme, I planned to take her out and photograph her looking for her little imaginary friends and maybe photoshop some creatures in after. But when I put her in place, and encouraged her to use her Spiderwitch stick to see if they were hiding in the rocks, a flurry of winged bugs flew out into the light and just for a moment, her fantasy was real.

Bluebell Wood

 Last year I discovered that we live really close to a bluebell wood (Chempshill Coppice) in Worfield and so I've been waiting for the right season to go and explore it with my camera. It was just as stunning as I'd hoped, and luckily on the day we went we were gifted with the most glorious sunlight. It's easily one of the prettiest places I've ever seen, perfect for portrait photography and right on my doorstep too!