Yesterday creativeLIVE introduced us to another fabulous workshop, with another fabulous instructor. This time around I am watching from home, but I still feel like I’m right there in the studio. Tamara Lackey is schooling us on the art of children’s photography and all its ups, downs, challenges and perks. As a former early childhood teacher who holds a master’s degree in education psychology and counseling in early childhood education, I know (and love) children. And now as a photographer I love making photos of children. Yes, I said making. Bambi Cantrell joined the live broadcast to critique some images from the Tamara Lackey flicker pool and the chatroom was all a buzz about the way Bambi addressed photographers as “the maker” of the photo. Well, it makes since. Anyone can push a button and take a picture, but a true photographer makes a picture with the proper lighting, setup, composition, etc. As usual the first day was long and exhausting, and informative and exciting, leaving me anxious for the next session thinking what else don’t I know? Well, for the next 2 days everything has been put on hold between 10am and 6pm, because I’m in creativeLIVE mode.
Here’s a quick recap of some pointers I gathered from the first day (with my interpretations of course)…
- Addressing fear: We all have some sort of fear when we enter this business, weather it be fear of success or fear of failure. Fear of growth or fear of being stuck. Whatever it may be, its so important to address the fear and strengthen yourself in that area.
- Nothing works 100% for 100% of people. Especially kids. Throw away the formula idea and GET REAL!
- Authentic capture: really seeing who is in front of you. Break the ice. Ask questions about your clients, let them know you want to know who they are, and keep the conversation going throughout the session.
- Allow for “pockets of time”- time for children to get comfortable in the environment, with new people, etc.
- Talk with the parents about taking the limits off the table. In my classrooms, I always explained to parents that school is the place to explore, experiment and test boundaries that are off limits at home (in the safest way, of course). In a portrait session with children its important to alleviate as many stressors as possible and make it a genuinely fun experience.
Tune in for the live broadcast of day two today between 10am and 6pm!
