Today was a bit better, 1 out of 2 of my littles returned to school. It was nice to have some quiet time with the Princess. Now their grandpa is here rescuing me, freeing me up to do something. I chose to blog, although I really should do the laundry.
While home today with the Princess, I decided to test out a new space of mine. A tiny home natural-light studio that I have added. It is not even close to being done and the wall that I am working with is about 3 feet wide so it’s a bit of a tight squeeze but soon with some additions I will be using it more and more.
I get told quite a bit that it must be great that my kids are so willing to be photographed. Most moms complain that the second they try and snap their little one refuses. Mine are NO different. The reason I was pulled into this career direction is less on that fact that my kids pose, it’s actually quite the opposite. I was challenged to capture them being them. That was my niche. My kids wouldn’t pose so I had to get creative on how to capture them and I fell in love with candid/lifestyle photography. However, I have wanted to challenge myself a bit with some more stylized shoots. I really need my kids to be my practice. The Princess is nearing her 6th birthday and although she is still not there when it comes to taking direction or posing for shots, she is definitely getting a bit better. I always envy seeing other photographer’s work, with their kids looking all modelesque.
Here is my model. She has not quite mastered how to work her facial expressions. When I tell her “do this or do that”, she exclaims, “I don’t understand what you are talking about.” I need to work on my cues.
Then I ease her anxiety and give her a tickle or two. Or tell her a story, that always helps.
In the end she really is never into me giving her orders.
So I usually give up and revert back to me telling her “just be yourself, do what you want.”
The result always ends up working out much better, don’t ya think?
I look forward to sharing more about this little studio space of mine once I get it all done!