Glamourous images? Okay, I’ll take that!

Ha ha!  Only your baby would have pictures this glamourous!

That’s a comment I read last night on a photo I did last week.  It was fun to read.  For me it means I did a good job if an unknown party (to me) thinks that the image I helped to create is glamourous!

A few weeks ago a former business neighbor of mine got in touch.  Her daughter’s first birthday was coming up, and she wanted to do something special before the little one turned one.  She had something very specific in mind, and asked if I could help.  I said yes, but was a little nervous.

We know I do landscape.  HDR?  Yeah, I dig it.  Portrait work now?  Yup, I do that.  But a photo shoot for a little person just starting to walk?  Kind of new to me.  I wanted to do a good job.

We actually decided to do the shoot on location.  At the client’s home that is.  But she wanted a seamless white background for some images.  So I packed up my Savage roll of seamless white, the stands, strobes, and camera and headed off for a portrait session with a little princess.  I’d briefed the client before hand.  Nap first, well fed, etc.  And guess what?  That plan worked.

A little over an hour and a half went into the shoot.  And our little model had a great time.  She was well rested, happy, and having a good time!  It all worked so well.

As we worked through the shoot I’d show mommy the previews on my Canon.  She was thrilled.  We were doing exactly what she was hoping for.  I always show clients where we’re going, that way if we’re off course we can correct.  But in the case of this shoot we were on target through the whole session.  Very cool!

Toward the end of the shoot we even got outside for a few images.  My favorite place to shoot.  In the great outdoors.  While reviewing a few outside shots with the client she looked at me and said, “Oh, there’s your signature style.”  Wow, I have a signature style?  Who knew?

So, does this all mean I’ve opened up a new market for myself?  Dunno.  Like everything else, I’ll take it on a client by client basis.  I have to understand them and their needs, they need to understand how I work.  Portrait sessions need to be fun.  When that’s the case it’s so easy to work.  And a lot goes into making it fun, including the personality of the photographer and client.  If every session were like last week’s with Miss Scarlett it would be so easy to do this style of photography.

Keep watching, you never know what I’ll be shooting next!

An experiment in extreme over exposure