That shoot was horrible.

I received an email from one of my sisters that said she was still searching for that photographer's blog post that reads "That shoot was horrible! Those hellion children wouldn't do a gosh darn thing I asked them to." I'm paraphrasing her more... colorful... words. After I snort laughed, I got to thinking about all of the mothers out there that think I walk away from their session thinking that. Let me set the record straight here, I don't. I never have. I mean, maybe when I first started out, and I was working at a few children's portrait studios. You know the kind. They're in the mall and surrounded by a thousand and three brightly colored distractions. You are allowed a whopping 20 minutes for your session, and you can only get an appointment right smack in middle of your kid's nap time. Yeah that was a real dream job. Well I've come to learn over the years, that very few children like having their picture taken. Especially from a stranger with a giant camera. It's about three minutes into the shoot that it all starts to get really annoying to them. They start fussing and generally get super grumpy the more you tug at them and force them to sit still and look pretty. A good photographer knows this and is prepared. This is a big reason why you pay us as much as you do. We all come with our bag of tricks, so to speak, to get that split second of perfection out of your child. Literally, all we need is 1/200 of a second to catch a smile, or that angelic look that you love so much. I'm writing this today because it occurred to me that you might not always see that we ARE getting the shot through all of the grumpy. All you see is your child acting out. Then you start to get really stressed out because all you can think is "I can't believe my child is being like this when I'm paying all this money to get their picture taken." We know you think it. It's cool. But the more you stress out, the more unhappy your child gets, and that just makes our job a more difficult. So you go weeks thinking that your pictures are going to suck, until you get your images back to find that your session didn't go nearly as bad as you thought it did. Low and behold, we actually caught them smiling. And more than once! So I got to thinking that maybe if I give you all a behind the scenes look at a typical portrait session involving a child, that you will have a better perspective at your next family portrait session. Maybe it won't be as stressful for you. Here's a look at a family session involving a two year old. This is one of the hardest ages to shoot. They are just past the cute and happy baby phase, and starting their "I think I can run faster than you" phase. It's important to note that, on average, only 4% of the images shot end up being seen by the clients. For every one of these...

There are about 52 of these...Maybe Grandma can help?NOPE.And you can forget about that hat. My personal favorite is the Back of the Head Shun. Fellow photogs, you know what I'm talking about. That moment the child realizes that all we want him or her to do is look in the general direction of the camera, so they turn their head in the complete opposite direction. And keep it turned until Mom is forced to turn her body around so that the kid will be facing the camera. Nice try Mom. Little do they know that, generally, I'm smarter than a two year old. If that particular shot isn't working, then I am just going to have to trick them into smiling. Then, I end up with something like this...Every photographer, parent, human on this Earth, knows that a child can go from happy to meltdown of epic proportions in about 30 seconds flat. But a good photographer knows the reverse can also happen. So we are always at the ready. The time stamp on this next image is 9:04:02AM.The time stamp on the following image is 9:04:35AM. No joke.

So fear not, Mom and Dad, your children are not exceptionally bad, or unusual. Sometimes it just takes a little patience, and a lot of endurance to catch the moments worth hanging on the wall. And those moments are what we as photographers live for! So just sit back, relax, and enjoy your children. Trust that your pro photographer knows how to get the best out of your child. It's what you pay us the big bucks for. (lol! That's a whole other blog post for another day)

To Life!

Leah

- Shout out to sis-in-law, Natty, for letting me use her session as the example!