tackling challenges

Image captured handheld 10/14/10, 11:28am • Canon 5D, Canon EF28-200 f/3.5-5.6 USM • 70mm, f/7.1, 1/320, ISO 200 • some adjustments made in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop

Image captured handheld 10/14/10, 11:36am • Canon 5D, Canon EF28-200 f/3.5-5.6 USM • 100mm, f/6.3, 1/500, ISO 200 • minor adjustments made in Adobe Lightroom

Last week, I got the opportunity to do a photo shoot for a little 2-yr-old and a 3-month-old. Audrina and Landon were such cuties! I definitely enjoyed the fun, football concept in these images.

This was the first "little kids shoot" I've ever done. I was pretty happy with some of the individual shots I was able to capture of each of the kids. BUT, this shoot was quite a challenge!! I learned A LOT.

I thought I'd highlight 7 points for myself to keep in mind next time I do a kids' shoot. (7 just seemed like a lucky number...and as I found out, luck is sometimes needed.)

1. An open football field is an endless playground—especially for a 2-yr-old who is on-the-go.

2. Pom-poms, a football and a megaphone make for extreme excitement (and more often run away from the scene than actually stay in it).

3. The likelihood that two young children are fuss-free at the same moment is much harder to come by than one might think.

4. Just because you're "cuddly" with each other at home, doesn't mean you want to show that in front of the camera somewhere else.

5. Taking breaks for McNuggets and deciding to use a new indoor location half-way through the shoot is okay.

6. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try (even after two and a half hours), it's just not destined for two kids to be pictured in the same frame.

7. In cases where #6 is true, you can reschedule for a more controlled setting—like we're doing with these two!  :)