As a professional photographer people often ask, “you must have so many photos of your kids!” Truth be told, I rarely photograph them with my big camera, I prefer my iPhone for daily snapshots. But every now and then, when I am feeling inspired by the day to day happenings, I bring it out and have some fun. This is a different style than my usual portrait sessions, and I love both styles so much. Most of my clients hire me for my portraits, but when I get hired for an in home lifestyle session I get so excited to flex my creative muscles with a new space.
First I go around the house and open all the blinds and let as much natural light flow in as possible. I don’t use a flash inside because it totally changes the look of the images. I had a speed light that I used to use when it was darker and I would bounce it off the ceiling, but it got stolen out of my car. RUDE!
Whether you shoot in manual, aperture priority mode, or automatic, the natural light streaming in will be beautiful.
Next, find them doing something mundane. Trust me there is beauty in taking a bath, writing and playing on the iPad. These are the kind of shots that moms can take. You know what your child does normally and what to document. I like to hang out by them for a minute and then start snapping away. I don’t want them acting different when they see the camera.
Try different angles. Kylie didn’t move at all here and the two shots look pretty different.
Don’t be afraid of high ISO. You may get some grain, but do what you have to do to get the shot. I think grain can look really cool anyway. When shooting indoors using only natural light, high ISO is the norm.
I like to take pictures of them while they are by windows, I just really love that window light glow.
If you aren’t getting the result you like, turn your subject. In this last shot, I went ahead and had Blake move her head and look toward a window so there would be catch lights in her eyes.
Remember, these are your pictures, there are no rules that you have to follow. Shoot from your heart and you will know when you capture an image that you will look back on years from now and love.
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