shooting evie

yesterday was so nice out i decided to shoot some nice spring shots of my daughter evalyn. i have a few suggestions when you are planning out these sorts of shoots (kids at the beginning of a season or holiday)

putting them in some fancy shmancy outfit just because its your fav or because well hey, they are having their picture taken, or because you bought it for a special occasion, may not render you your best results when trying to get some good kid shots. you want pictures to tell stories. its spring. allow that to inspire you. weather is warming up, plants are coming to life, flowers are blooming, trees are flowering. it would hurt my heart to shoot with the intention of black and white this time of year. it is all about color. so i knew i wanted to showcase colors that inspire me in spring. for us, we are so into planting and mulching, i decided to use that as a "theme". with kiddos you can't hold any themes too close to your heart because you can only ask so much of your subject. you have to be flexible and ready to shoot an often fast moving target. i dressed my target for the occasion. i started with rain boots. we got them awhile back from my cousin as a gift for CJ (my son) and he outgrew them before he wore them. lucky for us, evie is just the right size. next i dressed her top half in something bright (main color yellow) with large flowers as a pattern. since i had two bright busy pieces to showcase (the boots and shirt) i finished with a pair of very simple dark jean shorts. evie's hair is still growing out and thus it is often in her eyes. i decided for this shoot i would take no chances of getting that money shot only to have the wind aid in the covering of her eyes. i decided on pigtails since she rarely has her hair this way and thought it might be nice to try and get some shots of it up. i used some yellow bows to match her shirt and the season.

props can be a very important tool when shooting pics of kids. they can keep them occupied and relaxed. they also can be overdone or seemed too posed, so try a few until you find something that works. for us, a small garden shovel made her light up. she got to dig in some mulch like she has been seeing us do for weeks. i was able to get several shots that i had envisioned before she was over playing "gardener". hence the "don't hold your theme too close to your heart". maybe that wasn't exactly a quote. i guess i could have just scrolled up to see what i had said. hang on. oh wait. it was pretty much my phrasing. ah. to know thy self. back to the point..... so when your subject jumps up and takes off. don't keep trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, so to speak. just follow and see what you can get. you want to capture your subject and tell their story and there is no better way to do this than to allow them to be as natural as they can be. evie wandered off to our little neighborhood island complete with gazebos. with it being close to midday the light was very harsh and overhead. it posed a bit of a challenge with minimal shading around. i got some good pics of her running on the bridge back and forth, something she loves to do anyway.

here's a challenge to try and replicate a shoot with either your own little one or you can borrow someone else's. feel free to go into detail about how you chose everything from outfit to location.

as always make sure you are following copyright law.

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