My beautiful niece is a free spirit. She runs a lot and is a ball of energy. Ever since she moved out of that “potted plant” phase of infancy, she has been my greatest photographic challenge. She’s ultimately WHY I embrace the craziness of childhood in my photography and try to avoid “say cheese.” In a lot of ways, I have essentially captured her in her natural state.

We rushed up to the park to capture these last Saturday about 20 minutes before the bottom fell out of the sky. It started out nice and sunny, and ended with a very dreary tone, but I nailed it!

Babies are so expressive and they grow so quickly! Oftentimes, it can be assumed that you cannot get decent portraits of a baby at that awkward phase where she starts to roll around, but not quite sit up yet. I’d argue that you can get some very endearing moments captured at this time! Unlike much of my indoor work, this is done with all natural light. Not all of my clients have wide open windows, so much of my indoor work is with studio lighting.

Everyone, meet C! It’s his first birthday, and as you can tell, he’s quite excited about it!!! C was a total ham for the camera. I have never done a first birthday session for a child so quickly in my life. We set up, he started smiling, I snapped away, and then we moved on to the cake smashing fun! It was a great pleasure to be able to capture these moments for C’s family.

Happy Birthday little one!

Sometimes I have to step out of my comfort zone in order to ensure that the little ones are happy during a photo session. At this time of year, the best time to shoot is an hour before sunset, so around 7:30-8pm. That’s crazy in toddler-land! An older child would probably be alright, but kids under 4 tend to melt down around that time of day. As such, shooting in the bright morning sun can be quite a challenge! You have to face the proper direction, the kids need to somewhat cooperate, and you need to stick to the shadows to make sure you don’t have bright spots on your face that distract the portrait or make you squint. That said, it can create some stunning imagery. Bright and airy portraits are very nicely done in the morning hours! Plus with the humidity, you have a nice background haze that gives it an ethereal look.

I had the pleasure of photographing this family during the 2010 holiday season. I’m so glad that they came back for 2011 portraits to celebrate their daughter’s 3rd birthday! Our first session was sadly rained out, but I think it worked for the best. We tried in the morning, and we succeeded! I think these are the most natural smiles I have ever gotten from this age group. Letting kids play instead of forcing them into poses is always the best route. It may not be chain-studio-cheese-posing, but it will be more natural and capture them in the moment.