Ash's mom called us because she was interested in getting some shots done of him in our natural "nickel city" style. As a parent, it feels especially cool to be able to make some photographs that I know are going to always represent a moment in a family's life together. Hey - from weddings to maternity to infants to kids and seniors, etc - we're all about family. It's why we love doing what we do.
So anyway, my rambling aside, I got the chance to meet Ash and his parents on Wednesday and we had a great little shoot. Basically, if you're going to take photographs of kids in our style - you have to get on their turf and their level. Luckily, I spent a great deal of my youth fixating on galaxies far, far away if you catch my drift...so I think Ash thought I was cool - but I'm probably kidding myself ;).
I started out shooting without him knowing - I love the giant Klimt on the wall, by the way, guys!
With kids, once they hit a certain age, you can't just trick them into looking at the camera or smiling if they're not into it - I did find out later that Ash totally got bribed for his participation, but the best way to go about getting these kind of shots is to have no expectations or preconceived notions about what's going to happen visually - you just react and work with what you're given, and if you're relaxed and trust your skills, then you'll get a relaxed kid. The first thing we did was play some SpongeBob Operation.
Next we had some hang-out time with Ash's best buddy...what a gorgeous cat. I was never a cat kind of dude until I met Alyssa who already owned a sweet old cat named Wilma (you may have met her if you've been by our studio). Here's some shots I really liked for the couple of minutes we got the cat to play ball, photographically-speaking.
And then we played with some Star Wars stuff - I can't wait until Murphy is old enough for me to indoctrinate him. First was the Star Wars memory game, and then Ash showed me his nearly life-size R2D2. It responds to voice commands and has a drink holder built in...Alyssa, honey - my birthday is in July...I'm just sayin...
After some more playing we went outside to use Ash's rad, new snowball makers.
And then we took a requested shot with Ash's aviators...he wasn't really feeling the sun-glasses, but I like the shot - total thug mug. I couldn't decide on color or black and white, so here's both...
Ash, thanks for letting the dorky guy with the cameras hang out for a little while. I really enjoyed it and you are one rad little dude.
Labels: Buffalo Kids Photography, Buffalo Kids Portraits, Nickel City Sessions
