One Friday Morning, Part 2

   I have taken you halfway through my crazy, 2000-picture-taking day, late last March. I learned so much, saw so much, experienced so much. I witnessed the birth of a child into the world. I learned how to run on only four hours of sleep and still be social. I continued my ever-learning, ever-discovering experiments in calibrating my camera to my surroundings. I discovered how many sweet moments are captured when I follow around a 1-year old with a camera. And I found out why everyone says that six-month-olds are so fun to photograph :)
   Now, we continue with part two of this day. Before we go any further with my photo experiences, I want to say a tremendous thank-you to my family. My mom worked out all the details with people about when to come, where to meet us, etc. She helped me research lighting, techniques, and oh-so-many other things that helped make it a successful day. And she drove me everywhere. She really makes my job pretty easy :) My brothers and my dad were so patient with all our craziness. The boys came with us for a few shoots, and other times they stayed home to hold down the fort in our absence. Meals were later than normal, and their whole day was offtrack, and I heard no complaints from any of them. They truly were troopers.
   Back to photo world. All week I had been working with small children, from newborns up to 2-year-olds. My next two photo shoots were with kids between the ages of 6 and 11. Working with kids in this age range is a completely different skill set than infant/toddler photography. In fact, I don't think you can even compare the two. With little ones, I tend to follow them around and catch moments as they happen. With kids in the older age set, I actually give them some direction and guidance as to what I want them to do in the pictures, and they, in turn, are able to comprehend and follow instructions. Very different.
   So I share with you the first of these last two shoots. I worked with two children this time, doing individual shots and shots of the two of them together. It was quite entertaining to catch moments between the two of them: the expressions are priceless. Without further comment:

  

   Last session of this crazy day before I went home and crashed :) This little boy made my job so easy for me. He showed up at the park all business. I gave him little-to-no instruction, and he posed and smiled away like a model.

 

 

   And so we wrap up one of the craziest days of my life. So glad I could share it all with you! Stay tuned for some more catch-up in the next couple of weeks.