photographing children
© Tim Pannell
Okay….I’m a commercial photographer that shoots concepts and stories for a living and that’s very different than just shooting your own kids, which is what this blog is about. So why should you worry about shooting a concept or story for that matter when it comes to your own kids?
Well……because I said so. How’s that for sounding like a parent?
It just makes things more interesting. I really don’t think it’s enough to just plop cute little Steven or Julie on the floor and crank out a couple of cards worth of images of them just looking at the camera and smiling. Sure they’re cute and adorable, but your images can be so much more if you just take a little more time to think things out.
© Tim Pannell
When you add a concept behind the image it becomes so much more to look at….not only will little Johnny be cute, but the picture will be saying something as well.
I’m not saying to never shoot “grip and grins” with your kids….for heaven’s sake keep doing those shots to document the stages of your kid’s life at the very least, but every once in a while try to do something more with them.
© Tim Pannell
Pick an activity that your kid enjoys and shoot the build up to it, then the event and then the “post” event or clean up. Why shoot the clean up? Why not shoot the clean up….lots of times cool stuff happens when you least expect it and getting little Tiffany to help with the garbage might be one of those situations.
© Tim Pannell
So….the next time your little guy or gal has a bunch of friends over to go on the slip and slide, shoot the whole thing from start to finish. Don’t grab all the kids and make them sit still and pose with those cheesy glued on smiles they learn how to give because of “school picture” photographers that get some sort of oddball satisfaction from ruining your kid’s perfect natural expression.
Those photographers really cheese my cracker so to speak…….but that’s a different post for a different blog for another time.
Push yourself, expect and demand a little more from yourself and watch your images go to the next level.
© Tim Pannell Photography
Shoot through stuff guys…..now that’s real technical sounding isn’t it? If any of you have watched the show “24″…..they do it all the time. There is almost always something very out of focus in the foreground of most of their shots.
If gives the image a little bit of mystery, a little bit of depth and a little more interest than just a straight photograph.
I love depth in imagery. I usually want my images to look as 3 dimensional as possible.
For this shot of my neighbor’s daughter I thought it would be much more interesting if I shot the image through the French door rather than on the inside of the room with Jillian.
She’s by far the cutest little girl on the planet….she comes over and visits 4 or 5 times a week to eat “white” cheese and “good” pickles…”not the icky kind.”
When we lived in Arizona we had neighbors with 2 little kids that would come over and visit us as well…..we miss them dearly…..Jillian’s visits have helped us through our “withdrawal” period from Trenten and Cadyn.
As always, when shooting 2 or 3 year olds you can’t get too technical in terms of directions……gently nudging is about all you can do. Let them have fun….see what they naturally come up with……you’ll be surprised what great images you can make just observing what a 2 year old invents on the spot.
The next time you shoot, find some different objects with varying degrees of opacity to set really close to your lens in the foreground. See what happens to your image when you shoot through it. Play around with different things until you find something you like. Shoot through windows……play around with reflections.
If you go too far with something, just dial it back a little. Experiment with different depths or distances from your lens. Try different f-stops……typically wide open, or close to wide open works best, but try stopping for a few if only just to see what it does.
Most of all…..just have fun playing around with your photos. The beauty of digital is that it costs you nothing but your time to experiment.
Good luck!
© Tim Pannell Photography
Ever have to shoot in the wind?
It sucks!
Well…..technically, it blows.
We’re in that in between stage of weather here in Utah when it doesn’t know if its still winter or Spring.
2 days ago it was almost 70 degrees and yesterday it was cold enough that it started flurrying snow.
I don’t really enjoy this in between time…..either snow a ton or get on with it and bring on the Springtime.
It’s no fun shooting kids in cold weather when there isn’t any snow for them to play with.
I went out and shot a bunch of scenics instead.
My wife called while I was shooting so I turned my back to my tripod (something I never use shooting people) and had a little conversation with her.
The next thing I know is the wind blows my tripod and camera into the back of my head.
I’m glad my head was there to keep the camera from hitting the ground, but it really hurt.
It was extremely windy that day and cold and rainy – sleety.
I don’t know why I was out in it…….low I.Q. I guess.
© Tim Pannell Photography/Corbis
In any case…..it reminded of a much warmer day on assignment in Fort Meyers, Florida.
It was at least 90 degrees out and close to 1oo% humidity with 40-60 mile an hour wind gusts.
It was one of the most miserable days I’ve ever shot in.
I would lay on the beach to shoot and the wind would create these little mini tornadoes of sand that would blow into my nose and eyes.
The sand there is almost pure white, which is nice for providing fill, but causes snow blindness after a full day or working in it.
The other frustrating thing is what that much wind does to hair.
A little breeze is always great for getting hair to flow and move, giving your shots some life.
But that much wind just becomes a giant killer pain in the butt!
What should you do when this happens?
If you were smart and you were just out shooting for yourself, you’d bail out and head inside.
If you were on an assignment like I was or were as dumb as I am, you’d stay out and give it a go.
We pow wowed and decided to turn the day into “hair day”.
Most all of the shots we took that day focused on peoples hair in the wind.
It would have actually been a lot of fun if the wind and the sand hadn’t exfoliated at least 3 layers of skin from by body.
© Tim Pannell Photography
With the exception of the 2 year old we had with us, who had no hair.
She would have normally been my “workhorse” that day, but since she was 2 she ran out of gas pretty quickly.
Who could blame her?
The balloons in this shot with her only lasted for 3 frames anyway before they “Auntie Emmed” there way into the stratosphere.
We failed to explain the whole helium concept to her………ooooops.
It reminded me of all the times at Disneyland when there are always several balloon “escapees” at any given time in the air over the park.
We actually got quite a lot of great images that day in spite of the ridiculous amount of wind.
A couple of the images are still among my favorites.
I guess no matter what, it’s important to learn how to work with what the situation gives you.
In this case, we made the blowing hair the subject and quite trying to fight it.
It worked.
© Tim Pannell Photography
Just when I had given up on getting any more snow to shoot in, we got 10 – 12 inches.
The forecast was for a whole week in the 50′s.
We’ve lived here in Utah for just 2 months and the weather has been accurately predicted about 4 of those days.
We heard for weeks and weeks in January about major snowstorms coming our way and then..poof….nothing…..no snow…..not even a flurry.
© TIm Pannell Photography
When they said that we’d see warmer, precipitation free weather for the next week……Blam!…..we get a bunch of snow.
Why do I bother listening to a thing these people say. Weather forecasters are the very definition of inept.
Sorry about the rant!
In any case, the snow came, we shoveled for a couple of hours and then went to work.
My youngest son stayed home from school and 3 of his cousins ditched as well.
It’s nice to know that I’m encouraging truancy in America and the non education of my family.
I just worried that if I didn’t shoot pictures that morning that even though we had a foot of snow outside, it would melt quickly once the temperature bumped up.
It was for good reason because that is exactly what happened.
© Tim Pannell Photography
By late afternoon 2/3 of the snow was gone.
Our snowman had bought the farm by 1 p.m.
We got the kids all dressed up and hit the ground running….literally.
I wanted to get images with a neighborhoody feel to them so we just shot outside our house.
It makes it real convenient to just be able to walk inside to download and edit.
If one of the kids gets hurt during the snowball fights, they can run in the house and get triage…..convenient, eh?
I just threw a tarp down on the ground in the snow, laid down and screamed action.
I shot the action shots with my Canon 70-200mm f2.8 set at f4 and 1/640th of a second.
I tend to underexpose my images just a little when I shoot in the snow in order to preserve detail in the snow.
I noodle around with curves later on in post production.
You want to pay close attention to your histogram as you shoot so you don’t end up with completely blown out highlights.
© Tim Pannell Photography
As usual, the key to getting great shots with kids is to make sure its fun for them.
Lots of encouragement with lots of laughter.
Don’t get uptight. Don’t make it life or death.
Be sure to notice when they start to get bored and change the action.
Move onto a different shot.
One more thing to pay attention to is color.
There are a lot of nice colors in this years winter fashions……thank heavens.
© Tim Pannell Photography
It’s nice to have a lot of scarves and hats to pick from as accents for the kids’ ski jackets.
Most places are completely picked over by now, but you may be able to find some killer deals for next year if you keep your eyes open.
You can find hats for 75% off or more in some cases.
If you can get a small arsenal of hats and scarves to use in your shots…..it’s totally worth it.
Find a bunch of colors that work together and have fun with it.
© Tim Pannell Photography
I don’t know if we’ll get any more snow this year or not.
I’m pretty ready for Spring at this time of the year.
Back in Arizona I’d be out golfing and seriously considering getting in our pool by now.
The key I guess is to appreciate the weather you have, when you have it.
Make the most of the photographic situation that presents itself and as always……..have fun!
