Put yourself into the mind of a child. Your parents have told you they are taking you to have your picture taken, all exciting stuff and you are looking forward to saying 'Cheese' lots. Imagine walking into the big shop wanting to play but mum tells you to sit still and not get your best clothes dirty, eventually after what seems like 500 years to the young mind you finally get called through. Disappointment begins when you are made to go into a really grim dark room with a big plain white wall/floor, where you are blinded by the few lights around (this can be quite a scary experience for the very young hence many parents having to spend the first half hour of their 'timed' shoot calming little ones down)You want to play but you can't because for the next however long you are told to do this and do that and told to play with this and that, your face aches from fake smiling for the man/lady behind the camera and you just want to get out of there! eventually it's over and you can get back to being a normal happy kid. You look forward to seeing your photos after all you did everything the grown ups said and had your best smile on and said 'cheese' really well! imagine only seeing one or two photographs from all your hard work because after paying a small studio fee your parents are left only being able to afford one or two photos because of how expensive they are!
Now put yourself into the mind of the same child. your parents have told you they are taking you to have your photo's taken, again all exciting stuff but you aren't looking forward to being stuck in that studio again. imagine getting out of the car and realizing you are at your favorite park 'but mum i thought we were going to have our photo's taken?', 'we are sweety the lady is meeting us here' Cue the slightly crazy but funny lady who tells you they want to see this fantastic park they hear is great for running about and climbing in. imagine getting to go for a nice walk, run and play in the park with mum and/or dad while the photographer just snaps away happily and tells you how great you are doing and what a natural you are. 'i am not even having to put on my fake smile!' you say. imagine when the lady says goodbye she is off now giving you a mini 'hi 5' for how well you have done. you speak up 'but i thought we were having a photo shoot?' , 'well' i say and reply 'we did little one i have the best photos of you running around being yourself with a big smile on your face from you being in your favourite place with your favourite people, i even managed to get some nice shots of mummy and daddy for you who usually hate having their photo taken but were happy to join in when they saw how natural and happy you all looked out here'. imagine getting a disc of those photos back and being able to sit down and go through them as a family and print out all of your best ones together, however you choose!.
As a photographer i love location photography, don't get me wrong i am happy to do studio photography when it is requested and have plenty of times taken my portable studio to people's houses to give them a studio shoot in their own home (which is a lot less scary for little ones than being taken to a studio by the way) after all it is what the client wants that is important. i have never been a fan of the plain white/black studio background though, i find it lacks something that bit of spark maybe that comes from people that you only get when they are fully comfortable in their surroundings. be it their own home, relatives house or park location photography brings out the most relaxed natural personality from people.
Some people are put off having family photos done because they worry their feisty little one/s will be a nightmare to get to keep still long enough to have a photo taken. I lose track of how many people i meet that say 'oh i love your photography i would love you to capture my children but i fear they won't behave for you' this is usually because of past experiences of school photos or studio photos where children are forced into the most unnatural poses and lose patience really quickly with people trying to get that perfect shot of them. To this i say don't worry you can capture a memory of any child no matter how boisterous, i myself have 5 children so i know what it's like to have lots of feisty children to contend with. It's not necessarily an easier job for the photographer being out in the open because lighting is still important to get right and of course they will still try to get children to look at the camera from time to time, not to mention the ridiculous positions i have to get into to get certain shots i rarely come away from a park shoot without dirty knees and looking like i have just been dragged through a hedge backwards, but a relaxed child and adult is a happy one and this brings about the best images in my opinion so all the climbing and laying down is worth it. Take the children in the photos below for example i don't think for the whole hour Ethan was still once! there were a lot of missed photo opportunities due to how fast he was and his sisters of course were much easier to capture being a lot older than him but i managed to get some fantastic shots of him still and looking back he won't be remembering his photo shoot as being stuck in a studio he will remember having a wonderful day out at the park with his mum and sisters a memory that will stick with him for the long run.
so next time you are thinking of family pictures stop and think before you take up that special offer given out for the big corporate studio, check out the hidden costs they apply afterwards for photos of your own children some are just mind mindbogglingly expensive. Instead look toward local family based photographers such as myself that do package deals (where there are no hidden costs) there are lots of us out there and go for location shoots especially if you have little ones who you know won't sit still for long periods of time, you won't be disappointed!
