Photographing Playgroups - So Many Portraits I Wish to Share

This year I chose to photograph my playgroups and nurseries in the new year rather than in amongst the Christmas rush. Instead we used Mother's Day as the deadline which enabled me to relax and simply enjoy the experience. With January and February being a quieter time of year I could concentrate on taking my time with these children.

I definitely noticed a difference. I was back to really enjoying what I do and I believe it made a difference to the quality of the portraits I produced too. It didn't matter if I spent all day at these playgroups as I had no hectic schedule waiting for me on my return. I've never been one to like rushing through portraits. Sometimes it takes time to get a child to open up and allow me to capture their true self.

I met some real characters this year. I also tried to let go of the need to have children looking into the camera. I started to find that really special moments could be captured if I let the children interact with each other and just be themselves. Facial expressions can be so real and wonderful if we stop asking them to look at the camera or to smile.

This image below happened without prompting when these two cousins posed for the camera. It was so sweet seeing how much they love each other. I'm sure these two are going to have a great relationship over the years and what a great image to look back in years to come.

But of course I do still love the looking at camera portraits as well because I think there is something really special when the children can connect with me and the camera. When their images are later viewed its as if they are making a connection with each viewer of their portraits.

We had lots of sibling groups this year. I have to admit these often fill me with dread. Its hard enough getting one child at a time to sit still and perform for the camera. Now asking 2 is is a whole other level of challenge. But when it comes good its a great feeling, as it did for me on several occasions this year.

Every year I photograph children at Menphys Nursery, which is a school for children that require special attention for either mental and/or physical difficulties. This is a challenging but highly rewarding experience. It is rare that I am unable to capture a good photograph here, but it does often involve greater time and patience. And without the help of the incredible staff much of what I do would be impossible. Their patience and love for their job regularly astounds me.

It is always my goal with all children to have them looking as natural and content as possible. Rightly or wrongly, I'm not sure, I want to show the children at Menphys in a light that minimises any sign of their difficulties and hopefully provides the parents a portrait of their special angels looking as happy as they are able to make them themselves.

This year I really feel like I managed this. If I didn't know better I'd say there are no differences between the children at this nursery and the children at the other playgroups I photographed. And for that reason I have mixed them all up in this blog post so you don't know which children are which either. They are all just beautiful young children.

There were so many more I would have liked to share too but I had to be realistic. This is already several more than I would normally include in a blog post. I hope you enjoyed seeing them as much as I enjoyed creating them.

Comments

My Work Experience Week by Hester Sharpe

A week in the life of a Photographers assistant, is not all about saying cheese! I’m Hester Sharpe, currently at JCC but took a week out of normal school life on work experience to be a photographer’s assistant and learn the bits behind the camera, photograph and the process to get to the end result. During my week of work experience in photography I have learnt that there is a lot more than just taking the pictures and printing them. The steps in between are the key to getting the perfect photo. For example the photos have to be cropped, tweaked, edited, colour corrected. That is just a taste I have had in the processing of the photos and there is a lot more than just those things. Those processes are the most time consuming part of the photograph and a tremendous amount of detail is put in to the picture but all the hours spent are paid off with the end result; a perfect picture. It isn’t just how the picture looks; presentation is a key to photography too. Selecting the best ...

Wedding Workshop in Nottingham

On Wednesday of this week I made the trek up to Nottingham (which wasn't actually much of a trek compared to most of the other delegates who travelled from as far as Glasgow, Portsmouth and South Wales) for a workshop held at Crash Taylor's home. Crash, a very talented photographer, specialising in weddings is someone I can highly recommend to anyone. Apart from spending the morning getting to know the other photographers we then spent the afternoon photographing a hired model, in her own wedding dress, as we wandered through Nottingham Castle. It provided me a chance to see how other photographers handled their weddings as well as a chance to experiment with equipment I haven't had a chance to play around with. Like in this image to the right. Here I used my flash, mounted on a tripod off to the side. This allowed me to achieve studio quality lighting out of the studio, a technique I will be using in my environmental portraiture. I can't seem to make up my mind on whi...

I Shot My First Wedding

I finally did it, my first wedding. After years of saying I would never do a wedding I finally decided to have a go. I don't know what convinced me. Maybe it was the thought that if I did one I could say with authority that I don't do weddings. My husband had been on my back for ages trying to get me to give one a go. For me I would have to say that the most difficult aspect of wedding photography is the pressure and stress caused by the importance of the day. I worried about this since the day Dawn emailed me to say they had decided they wanted to book me. I hadn't expected to get this wedding given that I had no samples to show them. And I certainly didn't give them a hard sell as I still wasn't convinced that this was something I wanted to do. I kind of figured that if I got this wedding, with no samples and no experience then it was meant to be. Well I have samples now. In the weeks prior to the wedding I read and I read and I read. I read books, magazines and ...

More Newborn Baby Portraits

This time we worked with a more alert baby, even though she was within the 2 weeks we recommend for newborn sessions. But to be honest, I do like getting a selection of both. Its nice to get the chance to see their eyes as well as those beautifully peaceful sleeping portraits. Making eye contact is just difficult and smiles are nearly impossible, which are only wind related if we managed them at all anyway. I always try to get a few detail shots in order to capture their tiny little fingers and toes. These can be quite difficult with an awake baby as they move so much and I need to rely on autofocus to make sure these details are in focus and with such a narrow depth of field this can be difficult. And rather than just a hand or a foot I like to get some of baby's face in the shot as well which poses another problem with an awake baby, they just don't stay still for very long so their hands and feet aren't always in the right place....

I am Still Me: A Story about a Transgender Boy

Meet Leo. Leo is 15 and currently going through an epic transformation that has momentarily turned the lives of himself and those around him upside down. A mum who once had the daughter she always longed for is now coping with the realisation that she will be living the rest of her life with a son instead. When your child is born you have certain expectations of the typical life they will lead but most of us know and accept that it won't necessarily end up the way we imagine. Not every person wants to marry, have kids or be involved with the opposite sex. Most of us have come to accept this and can adjust to whatever comes our way relatively easily. But few of us have expected to have to deal with a change in sex. Its not that we've hoped it won't happen, but just that it never occurred to us that it might. This is a new adjustment that we as a society are being presented with today, just like so many others that have come before. When I first heard that Phoebe ...

Christina Lauder Portraits

Search This Blog