Finally I've had the opportunity to photograph a young man in my studio again. And funnily enough this was the second time that week which is absolutely superb. In both cases these young men were just as enthusiastic to be involved as I was, which is something I don't often get when I'm working with very young children, my usual subjects. With young children I find my energy in their cuteness. But with young adults I get energy from their excitement over how the portraits are working out. I get such a buzz from the experience and that can keep me going for hours, often editing the photos straight after the shoot for hours more.
Shoots for teenagers is something I've been wanting to focus on for some time. Its not something that I often get asked for though unfortunately. It tends to be parents of very young children who want to capture moments that are slipping through their fingers at lightening speed. Maybe its teenage moodiness that means these moments don't feel to be escaping us quite so quickly. Or perhaps its just the struggle to not annoy our teenagers with our requests that it never crosses our minds to ask for this. I'm sure many can imagine the response if they were to suggest to their teenage child that they sit for portraits.
That is why I want to create something incredible for them. Their limited experiences of portraits comes from school portraits, or a family session when they were little or perhaps the group photos at a wedding where everyone had to sit still and smile. Why would a teenager be excited about having that done again. So for me I feel its important to create something a teenager will love and I feel pretty confident that I accomplished this here, particularly when I hear this young man say 'that is the image I'm going to use for my profile picture'. Then I know I've done it right, when a teenager loves their image enough to share it.
I've been working on my craft for the past 11 years so that I could get to a point where I can produce just about anything I set my mind to. I am always looking for inspiration and often finding it in highly fashionable places. At the moment Vanity Fair strikes my fancy immensely. In fact it has done so for a few years now and was the inspiration for a family group portrait I created that won me the Family Portrait of the Year with the Master Photographer's Association in 2015. Its taken until now to put that style into practice once again.
I see this style as something that a teenager can get excited about. In fact this young lad did. When I showed him some of my ideas and those with the behind the scenes sort of props caught his attention. I knew then exactly what I wanted to create. I adore these images and hope very much that I get the opportunity to do much more of this sort of work. Teenagers should be photographed. They are at a turning point in their life that should be marked in pictures so this stage can be remembered just as those toddler years were.
During these sessions we take the time to create a variety of different images that can include casual portraits in day to day clothing, portraits that involve their hobbies or interests, in this case it was tennis, as well as something more formal as we see here. Here he came to me wanting a portrait in his prom suit but we took the opportunity to create more. I'm still working on some ideas for the tennis shots so I may share those at some point in future but they aren't ready just yet.
If you have a young adult you'd like to capture in a similar way please get in touch. I'd love to hear from you. There is never any obligation to book, if you'd just like to meet to discuss some ideas before deciding. My contact details are below. I look forward to hearing from you.
Phone: 01455 611069
Website
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