Hello there, David here from www.davidpurslow.com – As you may well know (unless you just found this post by a search engine) I am a wedding and portrait photographer based in Pembrokeshire, West Wales.
This post is about why I shoot portraits the way I do as why I try to get what the family wants and what they dont ask for also – I have put in in the photo tips section to help others shooting family portraits or kids portraits and dont want to to come across as big headed but want it to be informational as well as a great story.
I actually shot these portraits a few weeks ago but was saving them till just after Mothers day for obvious reasons
These baby portraits break one of the fundermental rules of baby portrait photography – the one about dont take photos of babies iwth fingers in their mouths. The shoot is for a local couple who wanted 3 or 4 baby portraits to go alongside some portraits of their eldest which they had done years ago (not by me)
My brief was they wanted square portraits or shots that could be cropped square so I shot a lot of pictures in all sorts of different crops – The customer is always right in my eyes but I also think they may want something that they had not thought about. Whenever I go for a portrait session, be it in Pembrokeshire, anywhere in West Wales or even as far away as Swansea, Cardiff ( south wales ) or Bristol, I always make sure the very first thing I shoot is exactly what the couple wants and has asked for.
With baby portraits time is one of the most important considerations as babies dont have a great attention span unless they are asleep. I set up my lights, took a few test shots and made sure I was happy before the baby even saw the camera then we started shooting – total shoot time was less than 20 minutes and that included a change because the baby had been sick.
So going back to my brief :-
- Baby Portraits – just the baby without siblings or parents
- Square to fit into frame to match existing photos
- Black and White or sepia tone
- Mainly head shot style portraits
- Natural in style
So this is the kind of stuff I shot first
Then once we were happy and we had the key shots I suggest we shoot a few in a little more ‘arty’ fashion and style. As you can see the difference is minor, the light is a little more contrasty in the next two photos, we pull pack a little, get a little more free space around the scene and even try something in colour
Then came the magic……………..
As ‘dad’ picked up Bronwyn to move her, I persuaded dad to let me shoot ‘just a few pictures of him carrying the baby – total time to shoot this portion was less than 100 seconds – I switched to my favorite portrait lens – The Nikon 135mm F2.0 (amazing portrait lens) and shot a few ‘intimate portraits’ of a dad with his pride and joy.
So why is this the magic – the shot is priceless – It prefectally captures the tenderness of the baby and the strength of the dad – Dad looks great because he did not think he was going to be in any of the shots had not shaved and this adds to the photo. Bronwyn had just looked right down the lens and the lights off the the left of the picture were picked up perfectly in her eyes.
This is the ‘MONEY SHOT’ This is a HUGE canvas print waiting to happen, this is the print every dad in the world would want and is probably my favorite of the day, mum and dad have already told me they fell in love with this photo and remember this is exactly the shot they had not asked for.
As a photograher you have to get the shots your clients ask for, as a professional portrait photographer you have to think a little outside of what they have asked for and first and foremost make sure you do exactly what they want before you start playing…………..remember if I had messed up all these shots, I would still have a happy client because they got square b/w portraits they asked for – they also got a huge bonus and love them.
Oh, here is the money shot.
Hope you like, if you do why not post a comment !
Take care
Ciao
dp
David Purslow
Wedding and Portrait Photographer
www.davidpurslow.com
Phone 01437 779412
Mobile 0759 0076666
david@davidpurslow.com
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