Life, Family, and Photography

So I have not had a whole lot to talk about lately. It is has been a busy one with camera or paint roller in hand. A couple of weeks ago I took Sierra to the Botanical Gardens here in Melbourne for a bit of a shoot. Sierra has become a great little model although one with a short attention span. I will admit, I am much more at home in the lonely places with wildlife and amazing scenes to photograph but I also realize the importance of versatility in shooting different genre. I also have a wife, and she is pretty set on my taking pictures of Sierra. Luckily Desiree also went with us and our afternoon began. My biggest struggle with portrait work is posing. I can generally find the composition quickly but getting a person into the pose is another thing. I have been looking at cheat sheets and other photography to find poses. My other struggle in portraiture is communication. Keeping a person interested in the shoot is tough, getting a child to smile a real smile versus the fake toothy smile is a must and after some research I thought I had the trick. CANDY, yes I bribed my child with little sweet treats. After each location change I would give her a Starburst or a couple of Skittles. This kept her pretty happy even while fighting the mosquito's and ants. She was pretty happy for a little over an hour and I have to say I can't ask more of a 4 year old.
One of the reasons I picked that location was because of another photo shoot I had coming up. Because I do not shoot to many portraits through the year I sometimes have to find subjects in other places. Like many, I use Model Mayhem. I have had a mixture of success and failure with the models on the site but I have to say that the majority of my shoots have been successful. Many are young women with dreams and aspirations of modeling while others have a simplistic love of having their pictures taken.

This last weekend I had actually set up to shoot two models. One on Friday and one on Saturday. I kind of got lucky in that the Saturday shoot was cancelled. Friday on the other hand with with a young woman named Samantha. A 16 year old who is not only interested in modeling but in photography as well. Because she is a minor I also have some rules and one of those is that a parent needs to be present during the shoot. I am also very careful as to the type of poses I put the model into as I do not want them to be provocative or racy in any way. Kids grow up too fast already I think, so I try to stay with in a certain look I guess is the right way to say it.

 
Anyways Desiree also accompanied me and between her and I we came up with some cool shots. Desiree did a great job of handling the lighting and helping with odds and ends. She is also great with coming up with new poses. With Samantha's parents along we also had an audience for most of the shoot. Despite the bugs biting the model and the parents, the shoot went very well. I should add that I had warned the model about the bugs before the shoot and had even used Permetherin on my clothing to keep from getting bit. It worked with one exception, one single ant got between my shoe and pants and bit the heck out of me before I could get it out lol.