Mine

Quiet Girl

Thumbsucking at 4 | Connecticut Children’s Photographer

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Some Basic Adorableness and a Bit of Beauty

These three are a tiny sampling of an extended family – a pair of grandparents and 3 sets of parents and children – who I got to shoot in the late fall. They were, as you can see, a photogenic group. I can’t tell which is my favorite, the classic teen beauty, the school girl playing peek-a-boo or the boy with his lovey.

Twins on Tuesday

A couple of my own children to placate the grandparents before the holidays… they are such quiet, mild mannered children. So shy. So withdrawn. Can’t you tell?

Three Little Towheads

Three little towheads giggling with you,
One went outdoors to play and then there were two.

Two tittle towheads playing in the sun
One went inside to rest and then there was one.

One little towhead worn out from all the fun
Sleeping with her bunny, and then there were none.

How to Undermine Your Child’s Portrait Session

So, there you are, having paid your money for a portrait session, but now a tiny devil sits on your shoulder and suggests you undermine it. How can you best ruin your chances for good pictures?

1. Dress your child in clothing he or she hates. Scratchy tags, unfamiliar tights, itchy lace and uncomfortable shoes are a GREAT way to make sure your child looks perpetually miserable. If your child has sensory issues makes sure to break out the dress or pants with the uncomfortable seams and don’t forget to bring out something totally new for a child who doesn’t handle change well.
2. Threaten your child. Totally destroy any possibility of a natural smile AND make sure every time you look at the final product you feel angry by threatening to spank your child if she doesn’t cooperate.
3. Stand slightly behind and to the left of the photographer and continually call your child’s name.This will make sure that every picture will show the child doing what appears to be staring off, blankly, into space rather than making eye contact with the camera.
4. Keep your child out late the day before. Sleep deprived and/or tired children are an excellent way to make sure the whole portrait experience is miserable for everyone involved.
5. Keep your child hungry.Schedule a morning session and decide to have a late breakfast afterward. Nothing like a child made crabby by hunger to get really special pictures. If you have a newborn, refuse to nurse or give the baby a bottle because you don’t want to change the schedule. This will guarantee you get a lot of screaming, rooting pictures and not a single sleeping shot.
6. Give your child a snack half way through. Sticky is good, crumby is good, but sticky and crumby together, such as a cereal bar, is the best. This way stickiness will hold the crumbs to your child’s face and every shot will include a bit of snack in it.
7. Insist on having the session some place or the photographer warns against. Whether it is your dark, cluttered house, a playground at noon or a park 30 minutes after sundown, if the photographer says that pictures there aren’t likely to make you happy that’s the place and time to insist on. Showing up late is a good way to accomplish this on the sly so instead of getting the warm, wonderful light 45 minutes before sundown you get the special light that’s left 5 minutes after sundown. A person who wants to ruin her own portrait session must be ever vigilant for ways to do so!
8. Fret loudly the entire session. If you are anxious that nothing is working and the photographer isn’t getting good shots your child is likely to pick up on that. However, why leave this to chance? Be sure to vocalize your concerns to make sure your child knows you are worried.
9. Tell your child that he or she is doing “it” wrong. If your child won’t sit still for a posed shot, or won’t run and play joyfully upon command, make sure she knows she’s ruining the pictures. Bonus points if you can throw in some guilt hyperbole about how Grandma is only clinging to life to see these pictures and now you have RUINED them
10. Don’t reschedule for illness. Remember, that 101 degree fever will just add a lovely flush to your child’s cheeks.
11. Don’t allow enough time. Some children take a while to really warm up to having their picture taken and you should be sure that you have a very important event scheduled right after your pictures. Sure, one of the benefits of custom photography, one of the things you are, in fact, paying for is having the photographer stay as long as necessary to get the shot. Forget that. Rush it. Don’t give your child time to relax. That way you’ll get a lot of nervous “deer-in-the-headlights” pictures instead of natural looking shots.
12. Insist on continuing when you child is clearly done. There comes a point when your child will have had enough. Toddlers sometimes share this feeling via the subtle body language of throwing themselves on the ground and flailing. At this point your goal, as a person out to ruin your own session, is to insist on keeping going. That way you’ll not only get lots of sobbing, miserable pictures you’ll look back on the entire experience as miserable. It’s a twofer. Win-win!

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(Obviously this is tongue planted very firmly in cheek but most (though not all) of these come from actual experiences. For a great portrait experience you should:

• Make sure you like the photographer’s work.
• Know how much he or she costs and whether that’s in your budget. Finding out after you are in love with the proofs that you can only afford 2 prints is not a good thing.
• Dress your child in clothing he or she (and you) likes, that reflects his or her personality and that is comfortable.
• Make sure your child is well rested and fed.
• Relax, back off and let the photographer work. Don’t call your child’s name, do a silly dance, threaten your child or worry that nothing is coming out. It will come out. The session itself should be fun. Relax. Have fun. The pictures will come out.

… and one of my one child sporting her “I’m over this” face because a photography blog post without an actual photo is plain weird.


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Gorgeous Children | Avon Children’s Photographer

This was one of those childrens’ portrait sessions I was really grateful at the end it wasn’t my kids because there is simply no way I couldn’t have every single one of these. It was s fun mix of film – love that film look – and digital for these. I adore working with film and am always thrilled to have a client who appreciates the special feel of a film portrait!

Of course, my kids never actually cooperate like this. Mine aim more for the “running away from the camera as fast as my legs with shoes on the wrong feet will go” look. Since if they consistently gave me portraits like THESE my house would be wall-papered with photos perhaps I should be grateful.

A Day in the Life

Just one from the A Day in the Life at the Cobb School. This was a full day of shooting, following this little Miss around her preschool as she washed windows, painted, prepared herself a snack, played with her friends, sang songs and more.

Your album should be ready in a few more weeks!

Moments to Remember at Photography Sessions

Now and again things happen at photography sessions that make one laugh, though usually not until a bit later after a glass of wine or two. A small sampling…

1. I was doing a very casual portfolio building shoot of a friend’s 3-month old son at my house on my back deck. She took her glasses off to get some pictures holding her child without the specs and my own child grabbed her glasses, broke them, and dropped them under the deck. We had to fish them out (or rather, I did, as she really is basically blind without her glasses) using a hook AFTER we located where they were by peering through the wooden boards at the assorted dead leaves below. Finding patterned brown glasses in dead leaves with almost no light is, well, interesting. I told her to let me pay for new ones. Did she? No. They are STILL taped together and that boy is 18 months old now. Every time I see them I feel glasses-guilt. Lesson learned: don’t ever try to do even the most casual shoot with your kids around. This just doesn’t end well.
2. I did a maternity session for one woman and was doing a set of rapid fire pictures, one after another, of the same pose. When I went back to proof the pictures, as I flipped from one to the next, I realized I could see the baby shifting around inside her womb and causing her abdomen to change shape. I’ve also had a woman have contractions during the shoot; she was a trooper and hiked all over West Hartford Center – in high heeled boots – pausing only briefly during contractions. She admitted she hoped the walking would bring on full labor. No such luck. I did, however, once have a mother go into full labor about 5 hours after our session.
3. Babies pee on my ALL THE TIME. It’s just part of the job and one reason I wear very casual clothes to shoots. Only once, however, did I manage to actually catch an arc of pee in the air when I pushed the shutter RIGHT as the baby peed. If this happens to you I will add a complimentary 4X6 of that shot for you to tuck away until your child’s wedding rehearsal dinner when you can add it to the slideshow of cute childhood pictures. This will be payback for the sleep deprivation.
4. At a wedding I once, camera gear hanging from my neck, jumped down a river bank to grab a blow-away ketubah that the wind had snatched and was attempting to introduce to the water, not 15 minutes after every single person in the family had signed it. This was not in the fine print of “How to be a wedding photographer.” I’ve also helped a bride into her dress, which eliminated any sweet “the bride getting dressed” shots but ensured that she actually DID get zipped into her dress.