digital portrait lighting © Tim Pannell Photography

Where do you start when you want to help people take better photographs of their children?

I remember when I started out taking pictures when I was in High School I knew absolutely nothing.  I was a blank slate.  I had nothing.

I had friends that had been taking pictures for years, so I relied heavily on them to show me the ropes.  Them and whatever crappy photo books I could get my hands on at the time.

I learned your basics about exposure, f stops, shutter speeds, lens choices and that was about it.

I shot scenics and some pictures (lousy ones) of my girlfriend at the time.  When I look back I’m completely embarrassed at how bad my stuff

Portrait Lighting Setup

was at the time.

My lens choices were crap, my angles were all wrong and even my exposures could have been tidied up a bit.

I didn’t know anything about cropping, but mostly I didn’t know a thing about light or the quality of light.

I didn’t realize at the time just how important great light is to an image.  That’s really what separates the men from the boys.  LIGHT!

My friends did the best they could.  they taught me everything they knew.  They got their info from other friends and other crappy photo books that were available.

I’m gonna skip ahead a few years.  Suffice it to say that I really enjoyed photography, but had yet to be exposed to anything that really helped me a lot.

I decided to turn pro when I was in college for Design Engineering and Economics.  I was going to go on and get an Architect’s license after that.

I had about a year left and made a huge change in direction when I decided out of the blue that I really just wanted to be a photographer.

I started out shooting weddings and engagement portraits.  It was fun for about a week or two and then it started getting really repetitive and boring.

I began pouring through commercial photography books, Communication Arts, Photography Showcase and the Black Book of Photography.

I would spend weeks and even months going over the images in those books one by one, identifying all the images I liked and then trying to understand what it was I liked about them.

This is when I really started to learn about the importance of great light.  I would then pick an image that I loved and then I’d go out and do my best to reproduce that image.

This wasn’t for my portfolio, it was just an exercise to learn about lighting.  I set about to learn what kind of photography moved me so consequently I would know what avenue of photography to pursue.

So, ask yourself, what kind of photographs have you seen that you really like?  Have you actually seen great photography of kids?

Do you like images that look like classic portraiture or do you like images that have more of an editorial feel?  Do you prefer images that lean a bit more towards a commercial look?

Maybe you like a little bit of everything and that’s fine too.  The more you play with photography, the more you’ll come to recognize your particular vision and way of seeing things.  This is the fun part!!

As you learn how to apply different photographic principles to your images, you’ll be able to see photographs and figure out how to go about producing those types of images.  That’s at least the ultimate goal.

Seek out great photography, learn all of the child photography tips you can get your hands on, get yourself a target to aim at and let the adventure and fun begin.

Don't just stand there! © Tim Pannell Photography

Hi, my name is Tim Pannell and I’ve been a commercial photographer for over 24 years.  Sounds almost like some kind of 12 step program.  I guess for many, photography can be kind of addictive.

It’s hard to believe it’s been that long.  I started out shooting weddings and engagement pictures for just under 2 years.  I grew bored of the entire wedding routine and moved our family down to Arizona in 1987 where I got a job as a photo assistant.

I worked for a great guy named Paul Markow.  He shot “commercial photography”.  Basically, he did a little bit of everything…..architecture, cars, headshots, business portraits, fashion, big productions, little productions, some celebrities.  It was a lot of fun and it introduced me to a

whole new world of photography that I’d never experienced before.  I enjoyed all of it since it was completely new and fresh at the time.

I learned about all the different ways I could control light, modify it and shape it.  I loved the challenges associated with lighting.  I loved learning how differently a scene could look just by the way the light hit it.  I could alter the mood from bright and cheery, to somber, warm and cozy just by the types of lights I used and how I chose to place them.

By 1990 I was ready to move out on my own and pursue my own career.  I was very interested in sports photography for advertising.  I didn’t want to cover games or anything like that, I just wanted to create game type situations where I had control of the lighting.

I got a New York rep that got me some higher profile national work and I was off to the races.  I shot for Reebok, and Champion Sportswear, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, AT&T, Adidas, Gatorade and whole bunch of other clients.  I worked with some of the greatest athletes on tthe planet……….Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Phil Mickelson just to name a few.

It was a blast!  I also started to shoot stock photography in 1992 with an agency in Miami called Sharpshooters.  They became my second family, Susie Turnau and Edie Tobias were instrumental in completely changing my career and my focus.  There are no words that exist that could express how grateful I am to them for taking me under their wings and guiding me.  I’ve lost touch with Susie, but I still get to see Edie from time to time.  That relationship changed my entire life.  I loved shooting stock images.  It was so nice to shoot what I wanted, when I wanted and with whom I wanted.

As time went by, I started to drift more and more away from sports and towards lifestyle photography.  I love interacting with people.  It was the perfect path for me.  I’d shoot seniors, baby boomers, babies, toddlers, families, gen X’ers, you name it.

Sharpshooters was eventually bought out by Corbis and my career shifted gears again.  I was able to work with several of the best art directors in the world in locations throughout the world.  We’ve shot in Africa, Paris, Barcelona, Costa Rica, Vancouver, Whistler, Norway, London, Denmark, Prague, Greece, Buenos Aires and all over the states as well.

I’ve had to learn not only how to light a wide variety of situations in a wide variety of locations, but how to do it quickly and as simply as possible.  In the commercial assignment world, I’ll shoot a handful, 3-4 images a day at most.  We spend a lot of time making sure the lights are just right and angles are perfect and exactly where the models will be.

With stock, the goal is to get 50 + pictures in a given day, so I have to be able to light quickly, but still do it well.  It’s a great challenge and there are many times of great frustration, trying to find the right balance between the short amount of time I have and the quality of light I want.

Fortunately, I always have an amazing crew of talented assistants, production co-ordinators, make up artists and stylists that juggle an amazing workload to help make everything go unbelievably smooth.  When we’re on the road it’s like we’re one big crazy family.  It’s a lot of work, but it’s so much fun, you wouldn’t believe it.  The images we create always turn out great in spite of whatever hardships or setbacks we encounter from our wide variety of locations and talent we happen to be working with.

I love photography, I love the emotion it can convey and the camaraderie that exists within the crew while we create all these cool images.  It’s a wonderful career and a wonderful medium to enjoy.

This blog however, isn’t written for people “in the biz.”  It’s written for moms that want to be able to take better images of their kids.  It’s written for people who aren’t happy with the quality they get when they take photos of little Jeffrey or Christina.

Maybe they mistakenly thought that if they bought a nice new expensive digital camera they’d instantly get better shots, only to be disappointed when they’re new pictures looked exactly the same as their old pictures, but with higher resolution.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve had people say to me….”Gee, I bet it’s nice having that expensive camera, I know my photographs would look really great too, if I could afford a camera and lenses like yours.”  Hey…..thanks for the compliment pal!

What most people don’t realize is that it’s not the camera that makes a great picture, it’s the eye behind the camera and the choices that eye makes with composition, lens choice, f-stop choice and lighting choices.

This blog will be about how you can make better choices so that your photos have life in them.  There are tricks and techniques that I know will help you get better looking pictures instantly if you learn to understand them and apply them.  I hope the information I share is helpful to you and that you enjoy the act of creating a great photograph of your child as much as i enjoy that process.

I welcome any questions you might have, or feedback you want to give.  Photography is a fun ride as it is.  You’ll have even more fun once you get good at it.  Enjoy the ride!