Day 27: Baby hands
I love James’ hands and feet. I need to spend some more time trying to get good photos of them.
I put James in front of the softbox today, and he is an even more difficult subject than Ada. James just never wants to stay still. He kept trying to get off the sofa or rolling over and kicking at the camera. I rolled him over on his back and tried some hands and feet shots. This was the only good one.
I added some of his to the ones I took of Ada.
This is posted a little early since tomorrow is family day, and I really need to go to bed.
From what I read, when photographing children, it’s important to have an assistant whom can distract them with something they’ve never seen before (to stun them into being stationary — and hopefully smiling).
Unfortunately, that only works for babies and preschoolers. Once they are toddlers–ie, they first become mobile–it no longer works well because any distraction is something they want to explore so they try even harder to get away. So for James, I have to give him one toy and take away any other distractions other than that one toy and take the photo with the toy, or I have to immobilize him before I can distract him with crazy antics to get him to smile.
The one toy trick didn’t work on the sofa because I could not take away Ada which is a big distraction for him. There was also nothing that I could use to immobilize him that wouldn’t take away from the photo. What I would have to do with James to get a good photo with my homemade light is to get it set up so I can put him in his highchair. Then I can use Mac or Ada to get him to smile without him moving around so much that I cannot get a shot. That won’t help with the hands and feet shots, but I can get a portrait shot that way.
See, I was thinking something like a carrot tied to the end of a long stick. Only, replace “carrot” with [something he's never seen before]. This way, it’s above his head, and he can’t reach it. Then, you either photograph him from above (if you want his face in it, too), or from the side (if you just want his hands).
That’s how I got the photo posted here. I was teasing him with my camera strap.
Mac was also sleeping off a hangover, so I didn’t have an assistant available
Perhaps when Ada gets a smidge older, she can be the assistant? Kind of like an apprenticeship.