Family Portrait Lessons – Stop Acting Like A Parent for 90 Minutes

This is probably hard for many people to hear and it can be a sensitive conversation to have so many photographers will avoid it and try to work through these issues during a session, but we believe that it is best addressed up front, before a family or children’s portrait session.

We understand that we all want our little ones to be polite and behave as well as possible, but we also want to get the best possible family or children’s portraits. Contrary to what the majority of people think acting like a parent during the session is not the way to get those treasured portraits you’re after.

Here is the fact…the vast majority of kids under the age of about 6 or 7 will not sit still for long and do not react well to being posed. They get bored quickly and the session stops being fun. To make matters worse, a parent continually telling them “sit still” – “put your hands down” – “look at the camera” – and my all-time favorite “say cheese” – very often makes matters worse. Little ones tend to get sullen and refuse to smile when they think they are in trouble or being repeatedly corrected.

Our advice – let kids be kids and let the photographer (us) direct the session. Just relax and enjoy the time and experience of making and preserving these special memories together.

We do the majority of our sessions on-location, so we like to let the kids run around and play…we let them be kids. That’s why we schedule 90 minutes. We may only need 20 – 30 minutes of actual shooting time, but the rest is allowing the kids to burn off some energy, enjoy themselves and get comfortable with us and our equipment. That is the benefit of experience and why you hire a professional.

The key for Mom & Dad, relax and let them be kids…maybe try being a kid yourself. 10 or 15 years from now when they are teenagers and developing lives of their own wouldn’t you rather look at portraits of your family filled with love, laughter and genuine closeness rather than a static, boring shot of all of you looking at the camera with posed smiles or worse…no smiles at all?

Here is how we make that happen.

First, a pre-session consultation is essential. It allows us to learn as much as possible about your family and what they like and what makes them happy, so we can do our best to bring those elements into your session and get you the best possible portraits. Does your little girl love Dora? Then we will make sure we have the Dora theme song on our iPhone to play during the session to get her reaction. Does your little boy have a favorite toy? Bring it with you even if you don’t want it in the pictures for some reason. We might be able to use it to get his attention or to make him smile. Trust us to find out what we need to know and to use that information to maximum effect.

During this consultation we will also go over studio information, policies and our thoughts on issues such as this one so we are all on the same page and there are no surprises during the session.

Many clients, and sadly some photographers, think that a pre-session consultation is unnecessary and a waste of time, but we believe it to be an invaluable tool in preparing to capture the best possible images for your family…memories that you will treasure for a lifetime, not just snapshots that will end up in a drawer next week. Trust us to make that happen.

Second, scheduling the session is another major piece of the puzzle. Most children under the age of about 8 will do better with an early morning session, before their day gets busy, hectic and before they get tired, hungry for lunch or near time for a nap. They are energetic in the morning, but they are also happy and less likely to get grumpy. Those are all the things we want.

Third, and this one is much harder for some people, relinquish control. Monitor your kids to make sure they are safe and don’t wander off, but please don’t be a parent. Let them enjoy themselves and let us gently direct them where we want them to go. Allow us to pose you and then insert the children; hopefully you are able to sit still just a bit longer than they can.

Allow us to “build” the portrait piece-by-piece through posing you and then inserting the kids quickly so that we can get off a few shots before they get fidgety and want to move again.

Also, and I can’t stress this enough, please do not encourage your children to “say cheese” unless you want that silly smile they get when doing that. We have numerous tricks we can use to get more relaxed, natural smiles on the little ones and also maybe make them laugh to get multiple images of how your kids look when they are really happy and having fun.

It is very hard, virtually impossible really; to get quality portraits for your family if you have your head turned toward your child the majority of the session telling them what to do, which quite often is not what we want them to do, or if you continually look frustrated or angry. If you relax, look at us and smile we can direct the kids and get them to look at us at the same time.

Relinquishing control is also very important even if you are not in the photo. We don’t want your little ones looking at you throughout the session rather than at the camera or where we are trying to direct them. This is the same reason why we have a studio policy against personal cameras or camera phones during a session…the kids, and sometimes the adults don’t know where to look and it gets distracting for everyone.

Why should you do all these things and let us take control? Simple…you are paying us for our expertise, experience and skill; let us use those things.

Weddings: Where not to cut costs…

Prime wedding season is only 8 or 9 months away and if you haven’t already, now is the perfect time to really get deep into your planning and your budget for the big day.

I have many people ask me about cutting costs in their wedding budget and if having a friend or family member do their wedding photography is a good idea, or if they should just put a disposable camera on each table at the reception. Well, as a professional photographer what do you think I’m going to say to that?

Would you have your friend provide the centerpieces and bouquets from their garden? How about just planting some seeds on the tables in the hopes that something beautiful grows? Or maybe your friend with a sewing machine and a bedazzler can make your wedding dress…seriously?

In all seriousness and honesty, if your friend or family member has the equipment and experience to do your wedding, then great. However; there are other questions and considerations to take into account when making this choice. Does this person have the discipline to do your wedding? They can’t be a guest. They must be alert at all times to avoid missing a shot and they will not be able to drink, dance and socialize. Would you rather have your friend be a guest or be your photographer?

Next, what if the pictures don’t turn out? You will have to re-live that every time you see that person; every holiday or birthday will only serve to remind you of those ruined photos. Keep this in mind as well, there are no do-overs when it comes to a wedding. If you miss the shot…you miss the shot. Is your friendship strong enough to survive that? Are you willing to take that chance?

As for using disposable cameras on each table…that’s a great idea if you want every 8 year old or every drunk to get their hands on them and take close-ups of chewed food, multiple shots of the cool chandeliers or daring men’s room photos. Not to mention the fact that this method accounts for no one to be taking photos during the bride getting dressed or the ceremony. Disposables on the tables are a nice idea in addition to a professional photographer, not as a replacement.

Now, we haven’t even covered how post-production editing will be handled, the availability of professional lab printing and designing a wedding album. Add all that in and the above ideas get really scary!

The point I really want to hammer home here is this; A wedding is a once in a lifetime event, never to be repeated. Some people may get married more than once, but each wedding is unique and by definition that makes it special. What a professional photographer offers you will outlast everything else on that most special of days, except for the marriage itself. After your wedding is over and the flowers have wilted and the food has been eaten, no one will remember what music was played or exactly who was there. Other than your new spouse, you will take 4 things with you into married life; your wedding gown, your wedding rings, your credit card bills and your wedding photos. Just about everything else is consumed in the party or lost to time.

Choose wisely and…Never Compromise Your Memories…

_

Why Are Professional Photographers So Expensive…

This is a great little piece by a couple of fellow photographers from San Diego, Shawn and Pamela Richter of Caught on Film Photography. It was first published in Professional Photographer Magazine in December 2009 and is just as relevant today as it was 18 months ago.

In this digital age where everyone has cameras, scanners, and home “photo printers,” we hear this all the time: How do professional (or personal) photographers charge $X for an 8×10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drugstore? Simply put, the customer is not just paying for the actual photograph; they’re paying for time and expertise.

The average one-hour portrait session

First, let’s look at the actual work involved:
• Travel to the session
• Setup, preparation, talking to the client, etc.
• Shoot the photos
• Travel from the session
• Load images onto a computer
• Back up the files on an external drive
• 2 – 4 hours of Adobe® Photoshop® time, including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, and backing up edited photographs. Proof photos are also ordered.
• 2 – 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment, and ship.
• Possibly meet clients at the studio to review photos and place order. Meeting and travel time average 2 hours.

You can see how a one-hour session easily turns into an eight-hour day or more from start to finish. So when you see a personal photographer charging a $200 session fee for a one-hour photo shoot, the client is NOT paying them $200 per hour.

The eight-hour wedding

A wedding photographer typically meets with the bride and groom several times before and after the wedding. And it’s not uncommon to end up with 1,000 – 2,000 photos, much more than a portrait session. Many photographers spend 40-60 hours working on one eight-hour wedding if you look at the time that is truly involved. Again, when a wedding photographer charges $4,000 for eight hours of coverage, clients are NOT paying them $500 an hour!

(Don’t forget that the photographer runs the wedding day to some extent. A comfortable, confident wedding photographer can make a wedding day go more smoothly.)

The expertise and cost of doing business

Shooting professional photography is a skill acquired through years of experience. Even though a DSLR now costs under $1,000, taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.

Most personal photographers take years to go from buying their first camera to making money with photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera, there is a mountain of other equipment and software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website, etc. And don’t forget backdrops, props, rent, utilities, insurance, etc!

In addition to the financial investment, photographers actually have to have people skills to make subjects comfortable in front of the camera. Posing people to look their best is a skill by itself. You could argue that posing is a more important skill than actually knowing how to use the camera. A poorly exposed photo can be saved, but a badly posed photo cannot.

The chain store photo studio

Chain stores do have their place. For a very cheap price you can run in, shoot some quick photos, and be done with it. But you get what you pay for.

Consider the time and effort that a personal photographer puts into photographs, compared to a chain store. Store sessions last just a few minutes, while a personal photographer takes the time to get to know the people, makes them comfortable, makes them laugh. If a baby is crying at a chain store, they often don’t have the time (or the patience) to wait because everyone is in a hurry.

The truth is that many chain store studios lose money. In fact, Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios in 2007 because of the financial drain. What the chain stores bank on is a client coming in for quick, cheap photos…and while there, spending $200 on other items. They are there to get you in the door.

The real deal

Professional, personal photographers are just that—professionals. No different than a mechanic, dentist, doctor, or electrician. But a personal photographer often becomes a friend, someone who documents a family for generations with professional, personal photographs of cherished memories.

Maybe we need to help clients look at it this way: A pair of scissors costs $1.50 at the drugstore. Still, most people will gladly pay a lot more to hire a professional hair dresser to cut their hair.

The added attention and quality that a personal photographer gives is worth every penny.

Shawn and Pamela Richter of Caught on Film Photography – www.cofphoto.com

_____