Oh No Portraits Again

Let me back up a little here so you know how this all came about.

Recently my son decided to move and get his own apartment. Very sad for me but it was time.

I had to find a use for that empty bedroom. So I painted it white and am calling it my ‘studio’

Here is how it went.

I was visiting my mom. My niece was there.

And she asked…

Hey Aunt Vickie what are you doing on Weds?

Me: Not much that is my day off work why?

Well we would like to get a nice picture of Kirra and Bella in their matching Easter outfits.

(Her very excited voice here)

And you could do it in your new studio!!!

Me: Well umm Ok… I’ll call or text you in a couple of days.

Keep in mind that it is a small room. It is just big enough for my shooting table and a couple of lights around it. Macro photography is what I really enjoy. Portraits not so much!

So when I start to really think about this I am saying to myself why did I say ok????

Challenges: The room isn’t long enough to get a lot of distance between the background and the girls. Being so close focusing will be a problem.

Plus I don’t want shadows on the background. Oh ya that won’t be a problem since I don’t have enough room to place the lights.

I am not a portrait photographer. I have no clue how to pose a 3-year-old and a 5 month old.

As for props.. you guessed it I don’t have any!

Why did I say I would do this??? I texted my nieces about all of these issues.

Their response:

Aunt Vickie we are not worried. It will be fine! All righty then. I guess I am doing this. See you on Weds.

Now I have to figure out HOW to do this!

Solutions: I set up the background at an angle and I went in the hallway giving more distance between us and I was able to focus the camera.

The lighting. I couldn’t do anything fancy or dramatic. ( I really don’t know how to do that anyway!)

I just set up a strobe and pointed it at the white ceiling and walls and let the light bounce back toward the girls. I was testing this out with a stuffed animal as a trial run.

My dog kept getting in the frame and wanting to play with the stuffed animal. So I used her as my model. I told her sit and stay. Of course she laid down but she did stay!

The lighting wasn’t bad and no shadows on the background!

The big day arrives and the girls are just adorable in their matching outfits!

So we ALL head up to my “little studio”. That would be myself, the 2 girls and 3 adults!

So here we go…. Start to finish it took about 18 minutes and the girls had enough! Plenty of outtakes with the parents catching the baby and actual posing was out of the question!

But since the girls are sooooo adorable the pictures didn’t turn out to bad. The parents are happy. I am glad it is over! Time to set up my shooting table and get back to photographing flowers!

Kirra 3 years and Bella 5 months are my great- nieces and they are cousins.

And my test model Nikki