Working With Children
Working with children is about much more than making babies smile. First, parents need to feel relaxed, so that their children relax, too. Then you’ll need to overcome the wariness of shy children and calm the energy levels of excitable ones. Lastly, you’ll need to understand their abilities and motivations, so you can connect with children of all ages and capture their latest stage of development.
Getting Kids To Smile
Asking for smiles from young subjects doesn’t work. Instead, you need to set the right atmosphere, tune into the child’s personality and intera...
Kai With His Skateboard
Simple is often best. A patch of daylight on a simple brick wall is all I needed to create this portrait. Oh, and the coolest kid on the block as m...
Searching For Giants
Making your shoots fun for your subjects is key to getting memorable portraits. This image was the final shot of the day and the result of a playfu...
Turning Props Into Fresh Portrait Ideas
When Grace’s mum turned up at my studio with her daughter’s name in big fabric letters, an idea started to form… Follow my thought process an...
Blue-Eyed Boy
A simple, one-light set-up, a narrow colour palette and a bit of silliness (to catch your subject’s eye) are all that you need for a child’s po...
Snoozing Newborns
Ah, newborns. You can’t ask them to pose or reason with them. They sleep when you don’t want them to, and wont sleep when you do want them to. ...
Aiming For The Lens
My high risk strategy for getting young James to look directly down my camera lens (and why safer alternatives are a good bet for engaging portrait...
Newborn Portraits With No Kit And No Time
With all the time and kit in the world, it would be easy creating spectacular newborn portraits all the time. Back in the real world, there’s oft...
Striking a deal to get the shot
Alex wasn’t interested in having his photo taken, so I needed a strategy to encourage him to cooperate. Happily, one of the tricks up my sleeve wor...