Something New

This morning, around 7:45, I met my subjects at Delaney Park to do my first photo shoot of children. Although I tried to dissuade their mom with the horrors of modeling, they'd like to give it a try.

I'd meant to do a little research prior to meeting up with them, but only got around to it this morning around 6:30. One of the first things I discovered was the child should wear something plain, but colorful. Because their mom said she'd looked into head shots and such, I figured we would be ok. Not so. The girls wore identical white sun dresses. Fortunately, they live fairly close allowing Mom to return home to rummage around for something suitable. I know these girls slightly from the market where everything begins; after Mom left we got comfortable. I sent them to the swings to get happy, and it wasn't long before we began to have fun. Torrential rains the night before made things a little dicey to begin with; fortunately Polly brought towels.

Wouldn't you know it, my favorite picture of Mattie is in her white dress:

And her is Claire with her gorgeous strawberry blonde hair and the perfect shade of green.

After about an hour we were all hot and sticky and called it a morning. Hopefully there is one great shot of each of them. I do so hope I can do more of this kind of thing to improve my skills. I'm never quite sure where to start when photographing people formally which is weird because I am totally comfortable with just about anyone I meet. I got the girls talking about favorite things which seemed to loosen them up just a bit. As well, I showed them the "Smarties" I had in my pocket which they are used to getting each time they visit my booth. Anyway, I'm hoping it was a success but only time will tell....


Here's a quote I found online which I believe shall become my goal.
"When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice." Robert Frank, LIFE (26 November 1951)

I've been super busy the last two days and now it is time to load the car for tomorrow's market, which if it weren't for the fact that I'm not a quitter, I'd have quit by now!