‘Tis that Season

With this fine and fantastic blog, I wanted to get to the point where I wrote about a variety of shoots I’ve done over the years and then catch myself up to where I am currently. I’m not fully at that point but I’m pretty close. So, what am I doing right meow? ‘Tis the season for family photos! And also that time of year when the surf starts pumping; but, since those are edited and are already Christmas cards, let’s get this show on the road! 

A dog, a horse, and a newborn walk into a bar – kidding, this is a family shoot. I found out we were going to have Dana’s horse and dog included and frankly, I got excited. Granted, getting everyone to look at the camera at the same time may be a doozy; but, these are my kind of challenges. Bonus footage occurred about ¾ of the way through as the horse let us know he was indeed, a boy.  

For the next shoots I felt like my ability to get kids to smile was touch and go. It’s hard to say when you don’t know parents really well when you can start making jokes about poopy panda pants (why a panda? We’ve already involved a horse and a dog, let’s keep going). I had good moments; but then, a lot of it was relying on the parents making the poopy jokes first and then bribing their kids with treats for finishing. Success!  

What else did I take away from this blur of a month? Always be flexible with people when they are packing small children around the same age in their cars. If there’s an army convoy slowing their drive down, be willing to change locations to make their drive shorter. Goal: happy children = happy parents = happy shoot. Use two camera bodies so you don’t have to waste valuable, ‘the kids are smiling time’ while you switch lenses. If you find yourself in a wooded area and see a rusty box cutter on a tree, check for needles before you sit down, and don’t do tree climbing photos. On that lovely note…Merry Christmas!!!

Funk you later!

Dear Reader, that catchy closing line is under construction as I won’t Funk you later because it would be bad for my marriage or it may endure the test of time, stay tuned, dun dun dun