Losing Calories

Yeah. Try and photograph children/kids/babies. You will sure lose few calories!

Had a session with Cal & Cas – twin boys with mummy and daddy. Got to know them through one of my client, Ainul. They went to Ainul’s house and fell in love with the work I did with Ainuls’ kids.

To cut the story short, they are leaving for Vietnam today (Friday) and really wanted to have this session with me. So, last Sunday I went to their house and we met for the first time.

Tips for you

1. PR skills is a must. You need to get the client/subject to be comfortable with you the moment the lay eyes on you. In this case, I’d two sets of subject – the parents and the twins. The parents was easy – since I’d spoken to mummy few weeks earlier and although this was the first time we met, the chemistry/connection was already established. The hardest part will always be to gain the trust from the kids – in my case, Cas and Cal.

Kids are really mysterious in a way. They judge people pretty quickly. So, instead of taking out the camera straight away, I’d to somehow strike a “conversation” with them first. And I will look for the sign – or permission – from them to let me take out the camera and shoot away. Cal & Cas gave their permission when the laugh/smiled at me when I made “jokes” to them.

2. Shoot away. I didn’t use my flash most of the time during this shoot. I set my camera at ISO640, f2.8-3.5 and adjust my shutter speed accordingly. If it gets too slow, i bump up my aperture or the ISO. I also set my camera on burst mode so that I won’t miss any moments.

3. And wait for the moments. I rather have a blur photo instead of losing a moment. Some of the photos from the session were blurred – movement, slow shutter and kids; work out the maths! But the moments were there and strong enough to make it a photo. So don’t worry about blurred photo if and only if the moments are there.

I had a blast running around, trying my best to capture the moments. In the end, I was really satisfied. The one hour session ended with both models yawning and the photographer sweating.

I guess calories were burned right there and then.