I could go on and on about what it takes to get cooperation out of the boys. It helps when I have a shot I know I want to take so I can direct them. It also helps when they are engaged and interested so I try to make it fun. After I take "my" shots, I let them pick what pictures they want me to take. They love doing crazy stuff then seeing the picture on the back of the camera.
In this case, Alex has been dying to play with a new bean bag I brought home. I set him up exactly the way I wanted then talked to him (entertained him) until I got the expression I wanted.
Then Alex chose this as his pose after I was done with "my" pictures:
What you don't normally see is the Monkey See, Monkey Do shots. Once Nate saw Alex getting positive attention, good old sibling rivalry made him want to do the same thing to get my attention. I prefer the comparable shot of Alex so normally I would just post one of them:
I would say the hardest part of photographing my own children is getting their cooperation. While I do have a lot of access to them, they are old enough to voice their disinterest in being photographed. It is actually making me a much better photographer to force me to learn how to coax subjects into shots. And it makes getting The Shot that much sweeter.
But sometimes... wow I am ready to starting yelling!
3 comments:
I'm really glad that Alex isn't my child. I've never be able to say no to him. He would end up being even more over indulged than Michael is.
As for the picture of Nate. I love that the not as good picture is also cute beyond belief. Nate looks so angelic.
As for yelling when trying to get photos? One of my worst parenting moments occurred while we were trying to get the family picture for the 2010 Christmas card.
Amazing pics! And now that you have the watermark, you won't have crappy friends like me who forget to give you props on the pics when posting them on FB, etc. :)
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