Little Cuties © Tim Pannell Photography

I got to shoot two little girls yesterday. What a hoot! The youngest is one and her older sister is 2 1/2. They are adorable.

Their parents are friends of ours from church. I see them every week, but I didn’t really know much about their 2 little cuties.

Sisters © Tim Pannell Photography

The first time I shoot with kids, I try not to push too hard for a preconceived shot. It rarely works out the way you plan. It’s better to just kind of go with the flow.

The younger they are, the shorter window of opportunity you will typically have. We shot for under 2 hours, which is a long time for 2 little ones of their ages.

Try to find a couple places that have good available light and backgrounds. Find some props to help keep them from paying too much attention to you and then start shooting away.

We started out with a little kitchen set. Eden, the 2 year old loves to bake! This was the easiest way to get her into shooting without “posing” for the camera.

Eden the Chef © Tim Pannell Photography

Eventually, they get used to you and you can get some natural looking shots of the kids just being kids.

The struggles with available light are almost always focus related. I have great lenses and yet they still struggle to lock on sometimes when the subject has lots of “energy.”

"Popular" © Tim Pannell Photography

Shoot anyway. Even if they’re moving in and out of focus. Sometimes you can get some happy little accidents. Blurry isn’t always a bad thing.

I shot most of these images at f2 between 1/125th and 1/200th of a second, ISO rating of 800. No fill lights, no reflectors. I wanted to show what can be done with no additional lighting.

Little Chef © Tim Pannell Photography

Most people starting out in photography just have the camera and a couple of lenses. Sometimes people mistakenly believe they can’t get great photographs without a lot of “stuff.” You don’t have to have fancy studio lighting equipment to get great shots.

© Tim Pannell Photography

You can add additional lighting to your “kit” in due time. There’s nothing wrong with taking baby steps in the beginning.

© Tim Pannell Photography

The most important thing to remember when shooting little kids is to try to make it fun and no big deal. It’s not life or death if you don’t end up getting an amazing shot.

© Tim Pannell Photography

If you try to force the situation you could ruin a lot of your chances for getting great shots the next time. You don’t want your kids going AWOL any time they see you pull your camera out.

© Tim Pannell Photography

Remember, Just have FUN!
Registration for the Photo Mommies Online Photography Workshop begins on Tuesday, September 22nd.  Be sure to sign up, there will only be 125 spaces.

Baby June © Tim Pannell Photography

This is one of my favorite baby photos.  It’s just one of those dumb, happy accidents.  It totally reminds me of those goofy chewing gum commercials and the 9 out of 10 dentists prefer Trident.

She looks like a little “pitchman.”  Here, look at this, look at how cute I am……now buy my crap!

This was a really simple portrait lighting setup.  Basically I found a room with great natural light.  I positioned the baby so the light would flatter her and be interesting.

I also made sure the background was visually pleasing, without competing with the baby.  I did that primarily by choosing a wide open f-stop, in this case it was f-2 and picking a background that had nice light, shadows and shapes.

The real trick, as always with babies is to recognize that ultimately they are in charge.

I sat her on the floor and laid down a few feet in front of her.  I got some simple props for her to play with.  She picked what she liked and did her thing.  I played with her for a few minutes so she would get used to me and hopefully, not pay much attention to me.

She was having a good time with her little block and then she glanced up with “that” look and knocked me out of my shoes.  I’ve shot tons of pictures of this little girl, she’s now 5 years old.  This is still my favorite…it just cracks me up.

It’s not any more complicated than that.  You shoot as much variety and for as long as the baby will tolerate your strange behavior.  Try to squeeze a little more out of her after the first “obvious” fussing noises.

With the 2nd set of “I’m growing weary of you” sounds, you pack your things and call it a day.

Baby Brendan © Tim Pannell Photography

Babies are amazing.  You never know what you’re gonna get when you shoot a kid that’s just a few months old.

Basically, you get everything set up and then put on your seat belt, ’cause it’s most likely gonna be a bumpy ride.

The best word of advice I can give you is, don’t get too attached to getting a specific shot, it will only bring you heartache, pain and extreme amounts of personal suffering.  Take what the little guy or gal gives you and be grateful for it.  Relish it.

I used my basic portrait lighting setup for this shot of Brendan.  The diagram is the same as in the “Beginning Photography Tips” post.

Babies are completely entertaining, completely beautiful, extremely simple, extremely complex, unique little creatures that don’t give a rat’s behind about your lighting setup, camera, f-tops or kind of photo that  you might want.

It’s almost like Christmas whenever I shoot a baby.  Who knows what’s gonna come out of that box.  It’s exciting and fun.  Only on a few occasions have I taken the exact picture I set out to take when shooting a baby.

If you guessed that those were my favorite baby shots that I’ve ever taken……..you’d be wrong.  The “surprise”, the “unexpected”, the unplanned shot is almost ALWAYS more interesting than the meticulously planned out formulaic image that’s pre-envisioned.

Baby Hailey © Tim Pannell Photography

I can’t stress the importance enough of planning the shoot out ahead of time and yet being flexible enough to adapt to the situation as it actually presents itself.  Never fit a square peg into a round hole.  It never works.  I’ve said numerous times that when it comes to photography one should never say never and never say always.

In this instance I’m breaking my own rule, that’s a STUPID rule.

Ooooh, I’m feeling a little naughty……….I like it!  I like it a lot!

First Steps? © Tim Pannell Photography

My wife and I have 5 kids and I can distinctly remember where we were when each of those 5 kids took their first steps.  It’s an amazing event and one that is always fun to capture in a photograph.

So, to begin with……..how do you pull off this magical feet of capturing those first steps with your camera?  Can it even be done?  It’s kind of like guessing the actual time of the baby’s birth.  Who knows when or where it will happen.  What do you do if it doesn’t happen?

Initially it’s important to scout out a convenient location in your house or yard that will be ideal for the baby to actually walk, but also where the light will be co-operative.  If you know how to use strobes effectively it will greatly increase your options for a suitable location.

To be honest, you’re most likely not going to be able to capture the “actual” first steps, but if you’ve done your homework ahead of time you can get that picture within a fairly tight window of the real event.

This shot was done for my friend and his wife in their little bungalow in South Florida.  I threw up a light and shot through a white sheet with my lens set wide open at f 2 and 1/125th of a second.

You’ll notice it’s not a “baby’s first steps” shot.  That’s what we wanted, that’s what we were going for, but the baby didn’t give a rat’s behind what we wanted and insisted on crawling.  I think it was another week before he actually walked on his own, but I was back home in AZ by then.

So that’s the twist with this shot……crawling.  I could have been so insistent on getting the baby walking that I missed out on what he actually did.

As I preach quite often about taking what the subject will give you, I followed my own advice and let the little man give me a great crawling shot.

As is typical for me with kids, I was lying on the ground when I shot this.  It makes all the difference in the world to the final image.  I love the joy on the little guy’s face, it’s priceless!