To keep or delete?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2012 has arrived and I think it's going to be an exciting year... I am particularly excited this year as there are some occasions that I think are going to be quite memorable... The London Olympics will of course be a highlight, my husband has a sabbatical, so I expect we shall do some travelling, plus my children are at an age where they make me laugh every day and I hope to capture and lock the memories as best I can, before they grow up too quickly!

So of course there are going to be many many photographs! On top of this I hope to be photographing lots of other bumps and cherubs along the way. This will of course produce many GB's worth of data on my computer, limiting it's memory, so I have taken the time during these first few dull January days to have a spring clean of my hard-drive, organising my folders, backing up my pictures and deleting one or two as I go...

I have a bit of a dilema deleting pictures and I would be interested to know what other parents do with regards to deleting their family pictures. I am a horder by nature and although I appreciate a good photo, I find it very difficult to delete the bad ones. I have even kept pictures that I have taken of both my girls when they are in tears, because I just don't want to delete anything they do.

I do however look at the handful of photographs that my parents have of their own childhoods and see how precious these little printed black and white keepsakes are, primarily because they are so few. My father was a keen photographer when I was young, so I have more than a handful of pictures of my own childhood that are lovingly kept in one album, but what will my children think about the photographs of their childhood when they are older, when there really are so many and what does a parent do with the thousands of pictures that don't even make the digital books that we produce nowadays?

Clearly I have too many pictures and I made it my mission these last few days to cut down on the amount of pictures that probably won't be looked at in the future. There are different kinds of photographs that you take as a parent: The ones that are jaw-achingly gorgeous, where the smile is so big, you can hear your toddler laughing; Then there are pictures that capture memories of places you visited, people you saw and things that you did; Then there are the photos that are a bit non-descript, possibly blurred, but maybe capture a favourite toy that has since been lost, a bruised knee, a tear on a cheek or a child falling over...

On this particular note, I photographed a Christening last month and as the ceremony came to a close, the sister of the little boy that was being christened tripped at the alter and was in mid-flight as I snapped away. Whilst editing the pictures I couldn't decide whether to include this picture in the shortlist to show the client, but I decided that although it wasn't the crispest picture, it told a story that they may laugh at in later years, but if I didn't show them the photograph, they may not even recall that it had happened. Embarrassing though it may have been at the time,

So my learning has been that it's best to try and keep your selection of pictures to a minimum, but the ones worth keeping may also be the ones that tell a story or show a unique detail that you may look back on in a different light when you are 'old and grey' or greyer, if the case may be...

Is less more?

It is quite natural when taking a portrait picture, to feel the need to put the subjects face in the center of your viewfinder. We naturally see things symmetrically and assume that is the best result for a picture. For most pictures, this works and you get a pleasing result.

However sometimes, the beauty in a photograph is because some of it is missing... When I first photographed this little boy two years ago, quite by accident I took a picture where half of his face wasn't even in shot, but it was one of those pictures that didn't need any work done to it. There was no cropping that could be done, because the picture already missed half of his face. It turned out to be one of his Mum's favourites. So when I had the opportunity to photograph him again I wanted to see if we could achieve it once more.

Two years on, he is of course more active and less excited about being photographed, but none the less a joy to photograph and his gorgeous dark eyes really pop! His little sister also had a turn and I can't resist showing her picture in colour. The contrast of her beautiful blue eyes,  rosy cheeks and gorgeous strawberry blonde hair is just melt worthy.

So next time you are taking a picture, consider that if you leave something out and embrace the white space, it might give you more.

Pumpkins and Poppets

Just recently I had a photo shoot with 4 close little friends. It's great shooting children that are used to each other and clearly used to having their Mums taking their photos, as they don't have any inhibitions and it's easier to capture their personalities in a shoot

We had the run of the Music school's garden and some pumpkins as props. I had some ideas on what I wanted to do with the children and their props, but it wasn't long before the children were all so excitable that they were running around in different directions and I wasn't getting 2 children in focus, let alone 4!

So I left them to it to see what they did and they all just plonked their bottoms down on a pumpkin each and laughed. It amused me, as I hadn't thought to ask them to sit on them and had I asked them, they probably wouldn't have!

You can spend so much time preparing for a shoot and imagining what the pictures will look like and what the client might want, but what I love about photographing children is the results are often so far removed from your original vision. The more you try to encourage a child to do something, the chances are, the more they will rebel against it. However they are likely to be doing something just as cute that is still a perfect poppet moment!

Have fun carving your Pumpkins ready for next week's Halloween!

A Cup of Tea - milk and one baby please...

I just had to quickly share this picture from a baby shoot from a few weeks ago. I first bought this cute pink spotty Tea Cup prop a few years ago and sadly didn't think to photograph either of my little girls in it and it and all too soon they were too big and I missed the opportunity.

So I was glad to photograph the little delicious Maya while she was still small enough to fit inside. I'm not quite sure what she made of it, but it's a nice picture to treasure when she's big enough to have a cup of tea... and maybe a slice of cake.

Someone once asked me when they saw another baby I had photographed in the Tea Cup. Is that a really tiny baby... or a really big Tea Cup?...

Hats in the late Summer Sunshine

Although Summer is my favourite time of year, as any photographer knows, bright sunlight is not necessarily the nicest light to photograph. High sun can result in dark circles under the eyes and stark contrast on the skin. So, as much as I am sad to see the Summer drawing to a close, I am glad to see that slightly lower sun which has been casting a beautiful glow on my recent photo-shoots. I have had morning and late afternoon shoots recently, both of which gave me the opportunity to grab some warm sunny glow in my pictures.

Children look cute in hats... bowlers, boaters, trilbys... any hats and there's nothing wrong with bringing along a few little props to get children in the mood for a bit of posing! Luckily for me all my little subjects were willing to pop a hat on. This resulted in some sweet little silhouettes and some dreamy sun flare. Here are two of the cutest boys showing how it's done...

It won't be long before Autumn is upon us and I can start using the apples, pumpkins and gorgeous leafage to inspire some shots.

Donuts and bright Balloons!!

I decided it was time I got a bit more creative with props this weekend. I had a lovely client/friend of mine with two slightly older children and a baby and I was all too aware that the older ones may have more inhibitions than the carefree toddlers I am more akin to.

The key to their hearts had to be a tasty snack so I (errr... no, my lovely husband) got baking some donuts. Mercy, my daughter, got decorating with pretty sprinkles...  and I ordered some bright helium balloons which I soon learnt when left in a hot car, deflate quite quickly!

Luckily for me, the children were beautifully confident and were excited about having their photos taken. They were aware of themselves, but not precociously so. They responded when they needed to and allowed themselves to have fun which added to the personality of the pictures. So I didn't need to feed them, but I definitely became their best friend when I opened the tin of donuts for a mini break! They had bites in them before I even had a chance to take a photo! Even the little one year old tucked in.

The balloons were more of a hindrance than a help on the shoot. Firstly, every other child in the park had a sudden keen interest in what was going on in our direction and wherever we went, we needed to ensure the balloons didn't wander off in the next gust of wind! They aren't the smallest prop, but the children loved them and the results weren't bad either.

So Donuts and balloons are fun, but next time I will remember to take the picture before the food disappears and I won't leave helium balloons in a hot place!

A Photographer's Delight

Last weekend, a close friend requested a photo shoot of her family. I have photographed her little girl numerous times and it has always been a pleasure. She's a little doll of a girl and her little brother has the most perfect strawberry blonde coloured hair with little curls that Mummy didn't want to cut until after the photographs had been taken...

It had been a hot sunny week, but as luck would have it, the rain arrived that morning, so we did what the British do best and had a cup of tea and waited. When the blue sky crept out from behind the clouds, we took a dash to the park which was wise as the sunshine only lasted an hour.

Usually an hour wouldn't be enough, but within minutes, both children were posing in complete unison and after only 15 minutes I already knew I had enough smiles that would have fulfilled any clients expectations. After a blissful hour of clicking this cute family smiling and laughing together, the clouds rolled over and before the weekend was over, they were all edited on my host page.

These are the shoots I challenge myself on the most. Once I know I have some 'banked' shots, I can then work at trying a few new things out. I came home on a high that day and decided it was high time I took some pictures of my own family!