Last week being half term, I decided to make the most of the opportunity to practice some of my photography skills. As I may have mentioned, maternity has never been my favourite theme and I struggle to get photos I am happy with.
My two maternity sessions last week helped clarify two things that make a maternity shoot flow more easily for me.
- Being outdoors.
The outdoor worlds is so beautiful and I feel it adds so much to a shot.Saying that I do have a few good ones indoors such as my shoots of Ann and Emily, coincidentally they were both taken in the same house which had a wonderful window providing great lighting. But what I really liked about them, is that they have older children in them which leads me to the next point.
- Having other people in the photo.
I love to photograph relationships, the interactions between people. Whether it is a mother with her child or a husband with his wife, there is something really special capturing the moment on camera. For this reason I don't like to prompt too much lest I lose that natural-ness.
- Take more time. Take less photos.
My best shoots are with my friends, the more time I take the better the photos are. Often I say, let's just hang out, have a cup of coffee and a chat or take a walk and I'll take photos as I see them. The models then feel more comfortable. I don't go for the posed studio shot. Ever. I want realistic moments. Both Emily and Ann who I spoke of above are really close friends of mine which really helped - I felt confident and relaxed in my practising my aim is to reach that comfort level with people I don't know at all.
As with all things practise makes perfect and I have seen how I have improved at other areas of photography (only have to look at photos I took when my now 9 year old niece was born!) and I am confident I'll improve with maternity photography.
Thanks so much to Joanna and Phylina for helping me out!
You know the photo you put on Facebook of Phylina standing next to a fence? I thought that was absolutely brilliant because there is a story in it. To my mind on the other side of the fence there is a pond - out of the photo - and she is saying to her unborn baby 'and we'll walk along here, and you'll be able to feed the ducks . . . and we'll love doing that together!'
These ones here are OK but not memorable because I don't see a story in them.
Is the cat Mooshie or the orange one?
Posted by: juliettmann | February 27, 2013 at 09:50 PM
Interesting thoughts! No Mooshie is my neighbour's cat, this is Joanna's cat. Cute eh?
Posted by: evie winter | March 01, 2013 at 09:19 AM