The easiest and most difficult portrait

It's easy to start training for portraits using the people close to you. The proximity and the availability (you know for sure that relatives and friends won't jump to beat you if you snap their portrait) makes this ideal for exercise. I believe that in order to get better and better in any kind of domain, repetition is the key. Being able to get deeper from this repetition and draw your own conclusions based on what you accomplished, constructing an engine that drives your person forward is the difficult thing.

I'm lucky because my daughter is in love with photography. Now that she saw my new camera she is also interested in looking through and taking a picture. Of course, I have to hold it for her (she's just 3 years old) but always we encouraged her to pose and to regard photography as part of our lives. The times we live in compels us to be able to look at a camera, not be afraid of it and not get totally panicked or blackout when someone points it at you. I prefer to know how to give my image instead of bullying the cameraman for taking a sincere shot.

We play together when shooting photos and she started developing this out of the blue faces. I really don't know where she got those from but I'm just happy that I'm there to capture those flying moments and get them on my camera sensor. It's not necessarily a sensitive touch I have, it's just that I think each beautiful moment has it's own unique peak. Capture that peak in the best way possible and more than half of your picture is ready.

I guess photographing a kid is a game of moments. During the holiday season, the 3 of us went to some nice lady photographer in order to do some "staged" shots. Especially for my daughter to have as memories (as I didn't invest at the time in a DSLR). Of course, the girl had a nice attic with two winter sceneries. The photos were not bad in my opinion and especially the lightning was correctly done. Still... I would never do that again. In a small city like the one I'm living in, this kind of photographer, with those two sceneries in her attic, is known by everyone.

I don't want to undermine the importance of studio photographers but in my own case, seeing other 4-5 friends on my facebook wall, having the SAME pictures posted transmitted me a feeling of mass production; and I can't stand mass production when it comes to domains that intersect with art. Not that I consider myself an artist but when I'll pay again for a photographer, I will pay one that really shows me that he can get a special thing out of the photoshoot.

Sorry babe... no more photo shootings for us.

I really think that kids should be photographed while they are playing or doing things they enjoy. Like my little one enjoys eating :D The snapshots you can get from just paying attention to their world can pop up some very nice stills. Or funny situations.

Children are too inventive to be photographed in a studio or in a certain pose. Treat them well, get to know them, play with them and they will get you back treasures in terms of photos.