I have photographed families and children before, but never recorded how I approached this. Admittedly, the previous family shoots have caused me a degree of stress and anxiety, why is this, people ask, well it’s the responsibility of this being a one-off situation that needs to be right, and acceptable photographs need to be produced.
So, when asked to photograph baby Cody, I approached this in a slightly different manner, like all things, planning is key, so we discussed what kind of photographs Mam and Dad would like, and did they have any specific poses, or set-ups they would like. On my part I discussed and looked at typical family compositions, and lighting methods used for this genre of photography.
After a couple of conversations, we developed a plan for the session, with Mrs. Tomlinson adding a significant input to these plans.
On the day of the shoot, I arrived in plenty of time to set up the equipment, and to get a feel for how Cody and Sophia were, there was no problem on this front, Cody had been fed and was asleep, with Sophia eagerly awaiting for the photos to begin, she even had a photo in her mind that she would like taken of her and Cody.
Once the lights were set up, checked and tested, the backdrop was fine-tuned with as many creases and folds removed as possible. So, we began at first I shot a few informal photos of Sophia just to double check that everything was working fine, and the photos were as they should be.
Mrs. Tomlinson began setting up compositions, with me checking that the photo would include gaps in the backdrop, light stands, areas of wall etc.
As I began taking the photographs, I found that although there was an element of stress, this was nowhere as severe as it had been on previous family photo shoots.
The two Children were fantastic throughout, the parents were great with helping to place the Children and suggesting slight changes in compositions as they saw fit.
I concentrated on ensuring that the shots were in focus, and that the lighting was producing adequate results, on a couple of occasions I had to change the position of the stands to keep the lighting acceptable.
As I worked through the session, people were changed to create a variety of compositions and trying to capture those unique and special moments that inevitably arise during the shoot.
After about 2.5 hours Cody was becoming restless, so we called it a day, only to be reminded that Sophia would like “her” photographs took, so we quickly set up a scene in front of the Christmas tree to capture these photos.
Al that remained was to dismantle the equipment and pack this away and have a well-deserved cup of tea.
We had a quick de-brief with Mam and Dad to make sure nothing had been missed, and after this, off I set to begin the editing session of the photos.
Once I uploaded the photos on the computer at home, I began selecting the ones that I thought were the better ones, from a photography point of view, with Mrs. Tomlinson then second viewing the photos to add/remove any as required.
This final selection was then edited to produce the finished images, these photos being at a reduced image size so that they can be sent over electronically for Mam and Dad to view, they also include a watermark at this stage.
As always, once the number of digital images is known, the quantity, size and number of prints (if required) are agreed, the full suite of images will be handed over to Mam and Dad on a memory stick for their keeping.
The feedback upon Mam and Dad viewing the images was fantastic, it really means a lot when you receive such positive feed back from a photo shoot.
The use of the photos used in this news article have kindly agreed with Mam and Dad.
