Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Photographing Children

As a photographer, I have noticed different things when other photographers try to get a child to sit still or just what some of my classmates do to get a child to sit still. At school, you had a certain amount of time to get a project finished. I remember one of classmates saying 'she had bribed her niece with candy.' (The project was photographing people.) When I was an intern for a professional photographer two summers ago I noticed she did lot with trying to get the kids to use their imagination. I think about this a lot especially since when photographing a child you have to realize they can not sit still for a long period of time without either wanting to talk or run around and play. Now, as I am writing this, because I have taken some pictures of children lately and my favorite pictures of them so far have been when they are being themselves. They are just so natural at that point. You see them with a true smile on their face and not looking at their parents or the photographer wanting a treat or hoping they will be done soon. For instance, these two girls were able to dress up and run around in the yard while I took their pictures. How fun is that?
Isn't that the kind of thing you want to be doing with your sister when a photographer comes?