| Simple.
The best portraits are usually simple and uncluttered. It is best for the model to wear clothing in solid colors with no writing. Often, busy patterns or brand names on shirts can be distracting. I try to keep my color palette narrow and will work with you to choose the best clothing. Try to avoid pure black and especially pure white. Both these extremes tend to create large, visual “holes” in the picture. Heavily textured fabrics, including anything knitted or coarsely woven, make for great photographs, particularly in black-and-white. Group shots where everyone dresses in the same color will make you look like a 70’s Vegas lounge act (which is not always bad!)
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| Capture
The Moment?
Let me be blunt. The moment is ugly. That’s why you come to me. If you really wanted to capture the moment you could chase your toddler around all day with your video camera and then relive it again and again in slow motion! Seriously, though, a great photograph is often merely an illusion of a longer, non-existent moment. Sometimes there is a momentary look on a person’s face in between the activities that are most obvious to everyone around him. You see Brendon grabbing his milk, pouring it on the floor and then punching his little brother before screaming hysterically and running away. I see a priceless expression which lasts only a split second in between the attack and the flee where he pauses slyly to check your reaction. The “moment” that ultimately winds up on film may not have really happened, but it appears that it did! My job as a portrait artist is first, to make sure the model looks stylish, whether that be in color or black-and-white, casual or formal, next, to constrain the possible activities into a small physical space and finally, to have beautiful lighting all around him so that when that decisive moment does happen, I will be prepared to get the shot.
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Don't
Be Scared.
Many (if not most) parents come to the session worried that their child will “misbehave” or not smile. They inadvertently convey this anxiety to their kids who coincidentally “seem different” on this one special day. Frankly, I prefer little terrorists to the ones that “behave” and smile. My only hope for some magic is when my models let loose and show me their true little demonic selves (this goes for my adult models as well). I have a two-and-a-half and a five year old. I realize I can’t make them do anything! What I can do is to make the setting so fun and interesting for a kid that he will naturally be “on” while I’m photographing him, allowing me to record some of his charm.
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