I was at my friend Heatherâs house waiting for the battery in my 1st camera to charge. We spent a good portion of the day doing photography errands. Then back to her house for some photography 101 by yours truly and a headshot session. We were about 3/4th through the session when I heard a known-to-me shutter sound. Followed by a question. I knew what was happening. Since I purchased my new DSLR, I have neglected to make sure my first DSLR is prepped and ready. Heading out to the session we knew the battery was running out of juice. Sure enough the shutter was being temperamental with lack of power.
So we put the battery back on the charger and decided to go
inside and wait it out. I sat with her son at the table and this boy was being
the biggest sweetheart youâve ever seen. Just hamminâ it up for selfies with me
and being very affectionate, itâs a moment hard to capture with a busy two year
old. It was a âget him dressed, itâs go timeâ kind of moment. And we moved
FAST! In no time he was in the cutest outfit with a matching spring hat.
I quickly grabbed the barely juiced battery from the wall
and quickly set my camera with the right shutter speed to catch a toddler and
enough light to come through my lens for focus and a nice depth of field. Why
didnât I use my new camera? I made the quick decision there wasnât enough time
to switch out the lens I wanted to use and memory cards since I failed and only
brought one! (Lesson learned!) I was able to capture some hammy moments
before.. the ducks came out. (WHOOSH!) Mood changed and excitement was
heightened. I upped my shutter speed to that of capturing a football player
going for a touchdown. Or in this case, to catch lightening in a bottle. Adjusted my other camera settings accordingly and got some amazing moments. Iâm so happy I was able to do this for Heather. I canât
thank her enough for the awesome head-shots she took of me.
One of the biggest challenges Iâve face so far in
photography is mastering sessions with children. Lets me honest. There IS no
mastering taking photos of children. To me children are like miniature drunks.
We chase them around. Make sure they stay out of trouble. Make sure they donât
harm themselves or others. Prevent them from breaking things. I think itâs
important to let parents know that although I am not a parent myself. Iâm
completely aware of all the possibilities we may experience in a session
together. Let me just say, Iâm a no judge zone and I have PLENTY of patience.
I try my very hardest to get those smiling posed shots, along with candid shots of their imaginations running wild. You may walk away from your photo session wondering what in the world I was capturing. I know Heather had to be very curious. I really can only give what I get, but sometimes my eye captures something different from the mood entirely. For instance the session I had the day previously. You wouldn't be able to point out that we spent every 3-5 minutes chasing and trying to capture the attention of a two year old. Especially when you see her smiling face looking directly into my camera. It looks like she was just sitting pretty for us the whole time!
In many sessions, Iâve been mean mugged. Iâve waited out tears and tantrums. Iâve chased. Iâve been chased.. Iâve bargained. Iâve made monkey noises. Iâve talked up embarrassed parents. And delivered something entirely different than what they were expecting. No guarantee that I will get the cutest smiles or capture a sassy quirk. But I very well try my best because my business started with a passion to capture those moments that we are going to cherish forever.