The best session is a child led session. I think I scare off potential clients sometimes when I bring this up so let me explain. When we let go of the need to control and force smiles and just be in the moment we create memories worth preserving. Photo sessions, especially family sessions, have the potential to be really stressful and chaotic. Let's be honest, that can be the case with kids in most situations. Having high expectations of how you want your photos to look isn't a bad thing, but it can definitely lead to a lot of frustration when things aren't going the way we quite had in mind. If we just let kids be kids and capture them as they truly are we set the stage for a really, really happy memory of getting our family photos taken - not just amazing photos for our wall. My favorite photos of kids are the silly faces, the shy faces, the serious gazes, playing with moms hair, digging in the dirt, getting goofy with dad, dancing in the sunshine, anything, and I mean A-NY-THING with water! I love the chaos! It creates so many opportunities for unique photos!
For this session, following the childs lead absolutely paid off. He led us to the beach where the wind was a blowin', the waves were crashing, the sun was illuminating everything, and there were birds flying everywhere! It was perfect!
I'll start by saying, typically two year olds are my jam! They're one of my favorite ages to photograph. They just are who they are and there's no changing that. For this session, the two year old really wanted nothing to do with me. I was warned that he was camera shy, but I assumed from experience that is how most two year olds are until they warm up a bit. Then that personality will shine through. He reeaally hated the camera though. Forcing him to sit and smile probably would have led to some pretty awful images and passionate emotions. So, we picked flowers, found seashells, played in the sand and he got a ride on dads shoulders. And they turned out amazing and captured THIS guys personality. Who he is at age two is tender, shy, curious and ever so sweet. Really happy to have created a really good memory for them!