First Child Shoot

I'm going to work backwards from Tuesday to the weekend with my posts. I've been offline with a fried modem, and now that I'm back I want to first share some photos from a couple shoots I did this week.

I went over to my friend Joanne's place on Tuesday to take some photos of her kids. Her son is around Abby's age (3 weeks older) and her daughter is 16 months. I must admit I was nervous as this was the very first session I was doing with kids, other than my own of course. It could have gone in any direction, what I feared most was them looking at me and running away screaming...BUT it was the complete opposite - they were PERFECT!! Joanne did a great job preparing her son (take home lesson #1 which I'll summarize at the end) so when I showed up he knew my name and was all to keen to pose for me - I was so happy!! He was a charmer. Joanne's daughter was also fantastic, being a little sick and 16 months old, she was the perfect little model, I really couldn't have asked for better my first time out! Here are some of the highlights (and a sneak peek for Joanne! These were my favourites -- BTW they are only slightly touched up - if I was to print I'd work on them a little more..):








I figure I spent about an hour shooting, in total I took about 165 photos and got about 15 "wall-worthy" shots (pics that I consider quality enough for displaying on the wall). I was hoping for more, and I know where I could have improved. But overall I was super happy with how it all turned out!

My take home points for this shoot:

1. It's so great to have the parent prepare the kids, then they are a little less nervous about the whole thing;
2. I was shooting at ISO 100 with my 50 mm, in retrospect I really should have been shooting at at least 200 plus. I would have had more in focus (I was had a few that could have been great shots except I was running too slow...) ;
3. It was the perfect length of time; By the end the kids were still happy and we didn't have any meltdowns - awesome!
4. Need to get a 24-70 mm 2.8, but the 50 mm 1. 4 worked perfectly!

Joanne - I'll e-mail you with a link to the entire slide show when I get a chance and tell me what you think and be honest!! :) I had fun-- thanks so much for the opportunity!