We had the shoot booked in quite a while in advance & this gave me time to get prepared. I read a few articles on Family Shoot set ups & while at The Photography Show in March, I bought a Lens Buddy which is a Monkey whose tail wraps around your lens & squeaks; this was to help keep the kids attention. I also invested in a set of soft boxes & a background from Phot-R. These were all reasonably priced & didn't break the bank since I knew I wouldn't be using it regularly. {Though one of my soft boxes is being used as a lamp for my room!} I decided to get the background as I don't have any rooms in the house that are white & we wanted a nice clean background.
Phot-R Background |
The night before the shoot my parents & I turned our dinning room into a "Photography Studio." We moved out the table & chairs, pushed the little sofa we have in there into the corner of the room & put up my background & soft boxes. the next day before my Niece & her family arrived, I took some test shots of my mum to make sure my white balance & ISO were set right & the background looked okay. I also transferred my shot list from my photography project notebook onto my phone so I had them to work from. I also set up my iPad Air so I could connect it to my Keenai SD Card so I would be able to see the shots I was taking while I was shooting.
One of two Phot-R Softboxes |
Even though this isn't my type of photography, my Niece & her family made it really easy & enjoyable. The kids were great in front of the camera; my Great-Niece loves having her picture taken so I knew she would be fine but I wasn't sure about my little Great- Nephew as he was only about 8 or 9 months when we did the shoot. But he was so good & when I was taking shots of just him, he happily sat on the floor of my background smiling & laughing at "Kevin" my lens Monkey while I took some shots of him.
My gorgeous Niece & her family |
USB & Box |
Once I had finished all the post processing, I went onto Loxley Colour's website to sort out the products I was getting for my Niece. I had put together a "package" for her which included a USB & presentation box, which I had personalised & a triple frame to match the one she already had. I really do recommend Loxley Colour for anything Photograph related, their service is wonderful & they have a great selection of products to offer your clients & the prices are very reasonable for very high quality products. The order turn around is really good too; the USB & Box arrived within 5 days of ordering & the frame took exactly a week, including the weekend.
Framed Prints |
I'm so happy with how the shots & so is my Niece, which as any photographer working with a client will know, what a relief that was! So even though this isn't my type of photography, it's something I now know I could do with confidence.
Take Care,
Louise