Portraits of Austin

For such a long time small children was the norm for me and I would sometimes find it hard work trying to get smiles or perfect poses. Now that babies have become a regular occurrence it turned out to be a very welcome change photographing Austin who is nearly 2 years of age.

Although Mum and Dad found it a worrisome experience with regular apologies for their son's behaviour I can't stress enough how normal it is to have a short window of opportunity followed by an ever decreasing interest in the task at hand. Austin did very well at providing me with the opportunities I needed to achieve the portraits I planned for this session. He was actually very well behaved from my point of view and they had nothing to worry about.

For quite some time I had the intention of purchasing some hats to have on hand for sessions and finally I made the effort to head into town and search for some. I found 2 such hats specifically for this session. And wouldn't it just figure but Austin arrived with the very hat I purchased. As it turned out it came in handy as Mum and Dad were both required to wear one of their own in an attempt to keep Austin wearing his.

So it would appear I have a renewed interest in photographing children of this age. It was a joy seeing Austin's reactions to our interaction with him and I look forward to this age group again, although I may feel differently come Saturday when I have 4 cousins of a similar age (3 & 6) coming in for a group portrait. Time to start planning that session with ways to keep them still that don't involve strapping them down.

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