I
am the mother of a very precocious little monster. At eighteen months,
he has grown up with a camera constantly documenting his every
adventure. What I share here is a small fraction of the memories that
fill albums and frames in my home; but they all come at a price. Hours
of practice and careful planning to devote the time to each shoot.
The shot above is one of two successful images from a period of twenty minutes on Saturday afternoon. He was occupied with the cat stalking through the tall grass, a bird flying past, the dog waiting to cuddle with him, and finally a pile of doggie left-overs from when that same cuddly dog had to visit the bushes. Which is why I wanted to point out that toddler photography requires the understanding that a single great image is all you may receive and it may not be the one you desire.
Every
year in my early days working chain store studios and selling retail
photography, this was the time of year that made me cringe. Families
and parents that otherwise felt photography was a waste of time and
money would begin booking sittings while some ideal image of two
toddlers sitting with model perfect smiles in a catalog perfect holiday
scene danced in their heads. I often watched new hires and veteran
coworkers being insulted and abused for failing to make their children
magically behave like perfect darlings.
What I will be doing now is sharing all those moments that could have made lovely photos that fell victim to the evil toddler photobomb! Yes, even professionals suffer from those moments. In fact, with my son visiting my studio on a daily basis at times, I have a plethora of material to choose from for this entry.
The image to the left is also for Saturday, though taken at my home with studio lights up while attempting to take an updated headshot for his portfolio**. As you can guess, he was having no part of Mommy and her camera being in his face. This is a rather typical response from toddlers to anything which they no longer want.
The next image, on the right this time, was taken at a family gathering on Thanksgiving Day. This is a common moment of poor cooperation through extreme sleepiness on the part of the child. My son had refused to nap and was about two hours past his usual time for unconsciousness following his watching of Sesame Street. I was already forming the idea of this blog entry and was pleased to get this "gem" for our examples because I cannot begin to count the number of parents with infants and toddlers that do not understand how vital it is that they consider feeding and napping times when booking with photographers.
As the manager of a few chain studios I often gave advice to parents as they booked about outfits, props, and the often ignored "how to time your booking". The factors were simple, children who are over tired or just woke up from a nap will be puffy-eyed and grouchy. Children who did not have their snack prior to sitting for the camera should not be expected to just wait because they will get focused on food over smiles. Sleeping newborns should be allowed to nap and wake up on their own; babies tucked into a gift wrapped box can be the best holiday card you will ever find. I stuck this information into the Brain-File of advice along with having your child partially dressed for their sitting as you arrive so that you can put on their shirt or dress and make sure it is free of stains.
The example here is from another day I was in the studio just to shoot my son's photos. This was at the same session that involved his destruction of a birthday cake, though I intentionally planned to do that last. At this point it was late June and I wanted to take photos of his beach outfit before allowing him to make an epic mess. I had put the hat on his head, but he insisted on holding it, leading to a natural failure with this second image. I fell victim to having an idea in my head that he would leave the hat on, and instead he fought it and eventually tossed the hat on the floor before we moved on to our next phase.
The next image, on the right this time, was taken at a family gathering on Thanksgiving Day. This is a common moment of poor cooperation through extreme sleepiness on the part of the child. My son had refused to nap and was about two hours past his usual time for unconsciousness following his watching of Sesame Street. I was already forming the idea of this blog entry and was pleased to get this "gem" for our examples because I cannot begin to count the number of parents with infants and toddlers that do not understand how vital it is that they consider feeding and napping times when booking with photographers.
As the manager of a few chain studios I often gave advice to parents as they booked about outfits, props, and the often ignored "how to time your booking". The factors were simple, children who are over tired or just woke up from a nap will be puffy-eyed and grouchy. Children who did not have their snack prior to sitting for the camera should not be expected to just wait because they will get focused on food over smiles. Sleeping newborns should be allowed to nap and wake up on their own; babies tucked into a gift wrapped box can be the best holiday card you will ever find. I stuck this information into the Brain-File of advice along with having your child partially dressed for their sitting as you arrive so that you can put on their shirt or dress and make sure it is free of stains.
The example here is from another day I was in the studio just to shoot my son's photos. This was at the same session that involved his destruction of a birthday cake, though I intentionally planned to do that last. At this point it was late June and I wanted to take photos of his beach outfit before allowing him to make an epic mess. I had put the hat on his head, but he insisted on holding it, leading to a natural failure with this second image. I fell victim to having an idea in my head that he would leave the hat on, and instead he fought it and eventually tossed the hat on the floor before we moved on to our next phase.
Toddlers making a mess or doing things you do not expect can also make for lovely moments. Keep in mind that there is often a way to make something beautiful without having to retake or ask your photographer to create a false image through large amounts of image manipulation. That photo of your little angel looking off into the distance and not making eye contact with the lens can be just perfect. The cozy little monster sleeping through his photos could make for a perfect "Sugarplums Danced in Their Heads" moment to share with family. And that kid with the grin that shows every missing tooth... he is just perfect even when he's asking Santa for his two front teeth!
