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Birthdays are always special and with the proliferation of digital cameras today, it’s rarer that someone would hire a photographer during a birthday party. Like a customer of mine said, if you hire a photographer, you are guaranteeing a level of quality results instead of depending on a relative who may or may not grab all the shots you want.
Anyways, Farah and family decided to swing by the studio instead. It was great timing too as it started to rain after they left. Zara Iman had lots of fun as you can see and she has some great moves & poses. My fave is the third shot from the bottom where she has this awesome expression that she just ran over the alphabet toy with her push walker. Simple wonderful.
The second last shot is also pretty cute. All the collection of toys didn’t really seem to excite her after a while (which is pretty normal for a studio session anyways) but then she was absolutely bowled over by my lens cap. Reminder to parents (myself included), don’t limit your child’s imagination with just toys — the imagination is more powerful that the toys we buy!
Babies are super fun to photograph and they are super cute to boot. I’m starting to do quite a number of little babies and they’re just super-duper fun!
Hilary just turned one year old and her parents, despite nursing a cold, swung by and dropped by our Studio for a session. She’s quite an animated little girl and has melt-your-heart cute expressions to boot. She really likes her favorite singing Barney but hats and butterfly wings didn’t really sit well with her. At least she’s okay with the bunny ears!
Babies are tremendously frustrating and rewarding to shoot at the same time. Obviously they can’t understand instructions and posing them is difficult. They also tend to phase out and cry every now and then. They also drool a lot. They are, however, extremely cute, cuddly and simple adorable.
After my own baby was born this year, I just love shooting babies. They can simply melt your heart. The trick is to have plenty of patience, shoot lots and take many breaks. Have toys, rattles and more to get them to look you way.
The soft, almost translucent baby skin also needs soft light and I will normally use a softbox and/or double bounce my flash units (fire into reflector which will hit a wall that will then bounce into the baby).
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.
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!
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