Oct 12 2009
WTD knows best..
Every single photographer on the web knows the ‘What the Duck‘-comics and most likely they are a fan of it. Its just hilarious, gets to the point and it tickles every nerve of a photog. Photographing kids is one of the constant topics in the comic along with the ‘bridezillas’ and ‘do it for free’-scenarios.
Recently I said yes to a request to shoot portraits of kids. I took a decent portrait of Jussi and aparently his wife liked it. Taking portraits of kids, how hard can it be, right? I had few ideas but tossed them out of the car window on the way I’ll be lucky to get one decent pic each and one group shot. There is no way I can hold their atension long enough to shoot two scenarios. What the Duck was right, shooting lions must be easier.
Lesson learned again. I tried this aproach with kids having their toys with them to calm them down. Problem was not that they would have been afraid of the camera. Actualy they wanted to take the camera and make their own portraits leaving me being just a fat monopod. At this point I had two frames in the can, which meant I needed one single portrait and the group shot. Shoooting kids has to go by their terms..
A Little bribe and a small thread from the dad and we were good to go. The last five minute sprint clickcklickclickclick and we were done. With kids you know when the shoot is over. Nothing more to do, then to give sb28 and cactus triggers to play with and pray they come back in one peace. Color gels proved to be a nice touch. Gigles, flashing blue light on the walls of dark room, more gigle and back to the gel pack for a color change.
Nea here is actualy a very good nature photgrapher. 
Tiinas intrest seems to more on the flashy side of things..
Susanna took a while to warm up for the portrait, but the riding trip not so long ago seems to do some damage to the daddies wallet in the near future..
I have to say that you handled the whole shoot really well. The kids loved it, and their mother was more than pleased with the pictures. A job well done.
Kids are tough to shoot. If you tell them what to do, they won’t do it, or then their expression shows that they have been forced to do something that they are not interested in at all… that’s why I shoot nature. WTD really does know best.