A couple of weeks ago I was hired to shoot young Tessa – the cute two-year-old daughter of some friends of ours. The shoot was great fun, and we got some good photos.
I asked if we could meet up early – around 8am – to make sure we had some nice early morning light, and we did the shoot in the garden at Tessa’s house.
This was partly so she’d be comfortable and have her stuff to play with, but it was also a great location as the trees provided some shade while the plants offered some pleasing backdrops.
Primes all the way
I brought a bunch of lenses, thinking it’d give me some options, but I pretty much only used my nifty fifty – the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II.
It’s amazing the shots the $70 lens delivers – on my crop body, it’s a lot like the classic 85mm prime full-frame folks use for portraits.
One of the joys was the shallow depth of field I could get, but when shooting children I think it has another couple of advantages. Firstly, it’s light and so chasing after them and shooting everything handheld is a bit more manageable.
Another advantage (that’s unproveable, I guess) is that because it’s not very big or obtrusive, it doesn’t seem that intimidating (or alternatively, fascinating) for curious two-year-olds. If they’re used to be photographed with pretty small point-and-shoots, a Rebel XT with a 50mm prime on it doesn’t look that different.
Dictating the pace
I had one real advantage with shooting Tessa – she already knew me. So it wasn’t too weird that I was hanging out with her (and her Dad) while she chased around the garden.
Some of the time I was following her as she played with her yard toys – just shooting from a low position and making sure the background was clear.
I love shots of children that are being left to their own devices – exploring something, staring off into the distance thinking kiddy thoughts . . . that kind of thing.
Occasionally she’d head off somewhere unpromising, so to keep her interested, I’d actively play with her – peek-a-boo behind a tree for example.
Some of the better shots where she’s looking straight at the camera came from these spells.
All told, I probably spent maybe 30-40 minutes running after her. I tried to get some longer shots with the 70-200mm f/4, but Tessa kept running up to play with me, so I could never get far enough away to make that work.
Processing
Tessa’s parents had said they’d like to see some color and some black and white images, so back in Aperture, I selected the best ones and did the basic adjustments in color.
Then I created monochrome versions of all them – a batch conversion that took very little time.
I went back through adjusting the black and whites – mainly lowering the exposure and bumping up the contrast.
The picks were all uploaded to a private gallery on my Photoshelter Archive.
Tessa’s grandparents and other family members can order prints (and mousemats, mugs, fridge magnets . . . ) from there.
Her parents can choose the ones they want for themselves, and I’ll softproof them in Aperture for final adjustments and print through Mpix.
I really enjoyed the shoot and Tessa’s parents and myself are all happy with the results. If you’re in Northern New Mexico and would like something similar for your kid, give me a shout.