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It was a packed day with a afternoon party shoot followed by Lee Lee and her kids. Lee Lee’s baby is just over 6 months and she’s quite a bundle of energy when she feels like it. As she’s not yet over a year, there are limited actions you can get the baby to do so toys, the simple studio floor and perhaps a sibling or parent. Anyways, with babies, we always suggest to take the shoot slow and give them enough breaks otherwise they will break and the crying could derail the session.
With a couple of toys, both kids got pretty natural in front of the camera. Don’t expect to hit off immediately — any relationship, even between subject and photographer will need work and the first couple of shots may be awkward.
I conduct Photography classes on a regular basis, most of them jointly with the PJEFC Photography Club and in one of my recent classes, I met Judy. She wanted some family portraits done and soon, I was at her doorstep.
Your own homes make one of the best family portrait locations as they are usually distinctively yours and recognizable. Many clients have whom I’ve had portraiture shoots over the years have used their home “portrait” canvas prints as part of their heirloom or family treasure.
Judy has a lovely home that brings nature in with it’s wide windows and landscaping. She also has two lovely children. Anyways, we did the group portraits at the living room and later had a few different variations over the house. We spent two over hours and had lots of fun and Judy’s a real hospitable client!
We had to reschedule this shoot a couple of times due to weather and kids’ illness but finally, on a bright, cheery Sunday morning, we made it to Taman Metropolitan in Kepong. This park is also known as Taman Layang-layang or Kite park as you would see plenty of people, both young and old flying kites in the evenings when the weather was good.
There was some initial mix-up at the entrances due to the main entrance being unmarked. Typical Malaysian situation however. Even my GPS directed me to the second entrance. Anyways, there were a lot of people but as the park was quite big, it wasn’t too difficult to find a clearer spot. You can’t get away much from people in the background though as it’s a Sunday. Points to note for future family shoots in outdoor parks — weekdays are emptier obviously. I just finished one on a Friday and we had the entire playground to ourselves. Secondly, 10am might seems like a nice time but it gets pretty hot quickly and everyone starts to look ragged with all that sweat.
Anyway, we did have plenty of fun and kids, being kids, just become alive when placed in a playground.
It was a lovely blue sky and clear morning that greeted us when we arrived at Putrajaya’s Taman Botani park. Hasya just turned one and she’s a lovely cutie.
We had quite a bit of fun around the park and even though it got hot, we soldiered on for a bit more before calling it a day. The challenge is very small children is that they can only last so long before they just lose it. You have to pace them and you need to frequently have the parents carry them, calm them and just let them switch off for a while before continuing.
She’s a real sport.
On a lovely Sunday evening, Lillian and Roger dropped by our little home studio for a shoot. We started at our nearby park. As Sunday was Hari Raya Haji, it was a bit quieter at the park than usual even though Monday was a holiday. The cool weather (the rain just stopped a few hours ago) made for a pleasant and fun time.
Lillian came prepared with flowers, balloons and more. As the sun set, we wrapped up our shoot at the playground and moved back to our home studio. We had a lot of fun and evidently, their little boy was going to grow up to be a Liverpool supporter whether he liked it or not! We didn’t have time to shoot around the garden but we’re definitely weren’t going to waste the lovely bubble blowers Lillian & Roger brought.
It was was dark outside already so what to do? Photography is about light and when light is not available, you improvise. After all, you’re paid to provide solutions, not complain about lack of light (and/or equipment). Flicked on all my 130W globes on my feature wall, single speedlite firing into an umbrella from camera left turned the evening scene into something surreal. Add a touch of cross-processed look and I just love the series.
Thanks Lillian & Roger for the fun time and the box of letter blocks. Congrats on the boy and hope you’d have a safe delivery! Roger’s going to have a lovely present this Christmas!
After a postponed school due to really bad weather we finally made it to Taman Tasik Botani (Lake Gardens) for a family fun time and portraiture session.
Being a Sunday morning, the crowd was thinner but it started to get crowded around 10am. Thunderstorms the night before caused most of the playground equipment to be still damp or water filled. That didn’t deter us from the swings and see-saws. The kids did have a lot of fun and everyone was sweating profusely by the time we finished.
If anyone else is considering Lake gardens for a family shoot, I’d advise to stick to 9am or 5pm as it does get hot for everybody and you won’t look good wet. With our tropical climate, evening rains are more common but I had to postpone a morning shoot due to rain as well.
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