Children are programmed at such a young age to stare blankly at the camera with such an awful smile. It drives me nuts, but we train them for these interrupted moments. Kids learn that whenever someone has a camera that they need to stop what they're doing (and usually I want to photograph what it is they are doing), stare at the camera (also not what I'm usually going for), and say, "Cheese!"
Yesterday this little boy and I were actually just looking around for ball that had gone over the roof. When I saw this fence, I knew it'd make a great background, so I told him to go stand in front of it. (I rarely like to get someone standing against a wall directly, so I usually point to something that is a foot or two away like, "Hey, stand next to that rock right there," or something like that.)
When he did make his way to the fence, the picture below is all I got.
Stiff pose, stiff smile. I tried to coax a real smile out of him but he was simply frozen. Finally, I decided to tell him not to smile. I knew that this would cause one of two things to happen: he wouldn't smile and I'd get a more dramatic look (which is still great), or he wouldn't be able to hold a serious face and I'd get a genuine smile from him as he laughed at his uncomfortableness. I snapped a few frames, knew I had what I wanted, and we moved on.
1 comment:
that's awesome! I totally agree with you! The pictures of my little girl are the best when she is just playing and I capture all the little thoughts she is having.
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