Taking boys’ portraits – don’t ask them to stop running

If you’re taking pictures of boys, you have to move fast. The brothers I did a portrait shoot of recently in White Rock were no exception –  aged nearly five and seven, they were chasing around like mad, clambering over boulders and not very interested in me at all.

Which is how I like it. We’d chosen the crags at White Rock as their family likes to climb, and giving the boys space to be themselves seemed a much better idea than cramming them into smart clothes and a studio.

So I came up from Santa Fe, while the family came down from Los Alamos, and we climbed down the rocky path to the base of the crags.

It worked out really well – we had a great time and crucially got some  good shots of the boys.

Their mother Rachael was very happy with the shoot: ‘We are so pleased! The pictures of the boys really capture them in their element and being 110% boy–so great! There are some close-up pics in particular that are fabulous and really look like we ‘see’ the boys’.

That’s the aim – a relaxed experience at the shoot, leading to images that capture something authentic in the children.