Pigtails and tutus
Mar, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
There's an outdoor mall called Santana Row in San Jose, CA with photographic gems (funky colored walls, distressed doors, fun architectural features) randomly tucked away on the side streets. Shoppers walk past these backdrops on a daily basis, but don't even notice how amazing they are. This particular wall is wedged between a department store and an apartment building. (I truthfully think the people who made it created it just for photographers.) I love that being a photographer allows you to see all the beauty in the world that everyone else passes by.Time
We took this photo around 10am. I try to avoid taking portraits between 11am and 3pm because the lighting is so harsh.Lighting
Good lighting is the first thing I look for when I'm on a shoot. The background can be amazing, but if the lighting isn't right, we'll move to another place. I am a children's photographer, so my goal is to make my little ones look as sweet and angelic as possible in their photos. In order to do that, I try to photograph them in nice solid shade when we're outside, or by soft window light when we're inside. To me, lighting is what creates the mood of the photos (it's like the spice to the main course). It makes the viewer feel something... if the lighting is harsh and dark, the photo will be serious and moody. If the lighting is airy and bright, the photo will perceived as happy. When I'm photographing my tiny clients, I go for happy. I normally put my subjects in the shade with the background darker than them, so their skin color looks healthy, colors are vivid, and they really pop, or I go for angelic, and have the sun directly behind them and overexpose them by a few stops.Equipment
For this photo, I used a Canon 5D Mark II with a 24-70mm 2.8 lens. I normally use my 70-200mm 2.8 lens for the majority of my photos, but this area where I took the picture was really cramped. The girls were sitting on the steps, and I was about 5 feet away wedged between a street sign and a parked car.Inspiration
With super cute twins in matching tutus and pigtails, this photo was already adorable before I even took it. I knew that if I could just find a simple colorful background with nice lighting, all I would need to do is create a moment where their true personalities came out for the camera. I really think that their sweetness, innocence, and a little bit of mischief really comes out in this photo.Editing
I normally do a lot of post processing, but in this case, I didn't have to do too much. I smoothed out their skin and brought up the vibrancy of the colors.In my camera bag
During my children's photography shoots, I normally carry a Canon 5D Mark II with my Canon 24-70mm 2.8, 70-200mm 2.8, and 16-35mm 2.8 lenses. The majority of my pics are taken with the 70-200, because I love the beautiful bokeh and the ability to catch action shots while the kids are running all over the place. I also have some fun non-traditional photo equipment that help during family shoots- a hand crocheted Elmo, Cookie Monster, and a stuffed monkey that I attach to my lenses. When you have a kid (or adult) that refuses to look at the camera, it works every time! I never leave for a shoot without them.Feedback
Children's photography is harder than it looks. It takes a mixture of fast and creative photography skills, lots of patience, and the energy of a highly-caffeinated circus clown. In order to get the perfect shot, it's more than getting the beautifully composed picture with perfect lighting. Children are so unpredictable, they don't stay in one place, and their moods can change so quickly. The unpredictably of children's photography is what I love most about it. You never know what you're going to get. Sometimes you find that moment when the kid runs into perfect lighting, does something that you couldn't have even imagined, and gives you an expression that is so distinctly "them". My trick is to put them in nice lighting/ great backgrounds, get my camera ready, and then the secret sauce is to really play with them. Their expressions, moods, and personalities are a true reflection of how they are relating to me behind the lens. If I can connect with my subject, then it truly shows on film. When I have a picture of a little kid laughing uncontrollably, it's normally because I did something completely ridiculous right before I took the picture. My advice while photographing kids is: be a photographer, but be a kid at the same time. Just have fun ;)
