Tonight we went to get Tom's picture taken at a portrait place that specializes in children. I even called ahead to let them know my son is blind and it will take us more time to get some good pictures. He needs some time to warm up in a new environment before he's going to smile and ham it up.
We got possibly the most immobile photographer I have ever seen. She just sat or kneeled where she was. She didn't try to follow Tom or move with him. And she had a hand-held SLR! I have never seen anything like it. I was trying to give her a chance though I had my misgivings during the shoot. When I saw the pictures they were just lackluster. No exuberance. Just some little grins.
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| A photo of mine. You have to get close to catch big smiles and open eyes. |
And I had Tom doing itsy bitsy spider, and playing games and jumping up on a bean bag. There were times when he was working it but I didn't see any of that stuff in the photos. I would love to have a portrait of Tom doing his itsy bitsy spider! It's so special to me because in the spring we had done that game together for a while, but then I saw Tom doing it on his own when one of his toys started to play the song. It just melted me that he could do it on his own so perfectly. I had not idea. So you could say itsy bitsy spider has a special place in my heart forever. But I have no photos of it even though I asked her to take some when he was doing it. Oh well. I guess we won't be going there again.
All the photos on this site are pictures I took of Tom. And I do click off tons of shots to get good pictures. That's what you have to do! Especially when you have a kids that doesn't keep his eyes open a lot and moves like lightning. I really work to get pictures by shooting down at his level. I'm on the floor right in front of him, just clicking away. I guess I expected her to work a little harder to get some good pictures. I feel like the opportunity was there and she missed it.
This is exactly why I started taking my own photos of my girls. When Hanna was born there was no way we would get good pictures with a stranger doing it. All the photos on my blog are taken by me with a digital SLR, and I think I get some pretty good shots! In my opinion, I'd say to take them yourself...you're going to catch the little things he does when he's in a comforatble environment. :)
ReplyDeleteYeah. I take all the pictures on this blog with a Digital SLR. It was my last big splurge before I had Thomas! I have always loved photography and used to take photo classes in high school and college.
ReplyDeleteBut Tom's 2nd birthday is coming up and I wanted photos to be able to hand out to everyone at his party. I know I can get them printed like that but I wanted a true portrait. And the shots aren't horrible but there were only 3 good ones to choose from and only one of those was a real facial portrait.
We will see. I have a couple friends that do photography on the side.