Childhood flies by at the speed of light. Two blinks and your child has gone from baby to toddler to teenager. Working as a team, we'll create portraits of those expressions that you know and love. We've got our ways to charm a smile out of even the shyest child and can wrangle even the most active youngster!
In the middle of the business and busy-ness of parenting, portraits help you remember...before kindergarten when they still have all their baby teeth, those in-between years of curiosity and expanding knowledge and then the 'tweens and early teenage years when their distinct personalities really start to show.
We've got decades of combined experience working with children and we genuinely love getting to know them. You might even laugh along at our silly antics...
When photographing children, we can create several styles of images. We often create at least two different styles of images in a portrait session.
Classic, Illustrative and Pictorial.
Classic Portraits are thoughtfully posed; lighting and location well thought out. Expressions can be smiling or serious. The child is almost always looking at the camera. We don't like that mechanical, forced smile any better than you do! Children are taught to cheese it up for the camera and they are often just trying to cooperate when they give us that show your teeth smile. We've photographed hundreds of children and have an impressive "bag of tricks" that will coax out the most natural expressions. Relax and let us work our magic. Here's a great example of a Classic Portrait.
and another:
These portraits are more spontaneous and are often full of emotion and motion. It's a more photojournalistic/lifestyle type of portrait. We'll put your child in a location with optimal lighting conditions and background and then let them be themselves. We'll give them directions such as "do you think your dress will twirl?" or "can you find any beautiful leaves nearby?". If we're working with siblings, we might say "whisper a funny word in your brother's ear" or "show your sister that sparkly rock and tell her all about it". Illustrative portraits are relaxed and casual although they can also be very dramatic.
Here's a gorgeous Illustrative example of two brothers in a field. They had wandered a little ways off by themselves while we were working with their parents. We noticed them closely examining some little yellow seed pods. The almost bare trees in the distance made for a beautiful painterly backdrop and the soft rim light was just perfect. This image won a nice award in our state print competition and a merit in International Print Competition from the Professional Photographers of America. Best of all, the parents have a large canvas of this portrait hanging in their home.
Here's another great example of an Illustrative Portrait.
Two sisters out picking flowers:
The last style of portraiture we create is Pictorial. The child is a smaller part of the portrait with the landscape more dominant. We don't always have the opportunity to create this style of portrait but when we do, it can be really special.
In this example, the scenery isn't that spectacular but what makes this portrait so amazing is this: The little boy's grandfather has spent years lovingly building the most unbelievable botanical gardens close to downtown Boone. Acres of carefully curated blooming and unique plantings, bridges, and roads are all artfully laid out. The trackhoe excavator that the boy is playing with belonged to his father and was a favorite toy. The trackhoe in the background belongs to his grandfather and represents his grandfather's dedication to a project that will live into future generations. I can only imagine what this portrait will mean to the future son or grandson of the little boy in this portrait.
Another Pictorial Portrait of two brothers in Linville, near the Pisgah National Forest:
Would you like more information about our portrait sessions for children? Send us a message - we'd love to discuss the possibilities of creating portraits for you.