As anyone who holds a camera in their hands and attempts to make a few bucks with said camera can tell you, it’s not so easy. Sure, sometimes you get lucky and everything goes like a well scripted play. Your subject smiles just so, your lighting is perfect, the camera is up to your eye and CLICK… the shutter opens and closes capturing one of your all time favorite shots. Unfortunately, this rarely happens.

Most of the time, one or more of the things that can go wrong, does. One or more issues become apparent when you view your photo session images on your computer screen, long after you can do anything about it. No chance to re-shoot. 99.99% of the time, you get one attempt. You never want to call a client, admit you’re an idiot and tell them you need to schedule a re-shoot because you blew it. Something kinda, sorta like this almost did happen to me several years ago.

I was asked to donate my services at a fundraiser for my daughter’s school. Many people paid to have their photo taken with a sports celebrity. Everything was going great for an hour or so when I decided to chimp a quick look at the images I had captured. I noticed several images were out of focus. Oh no! Quick; think of what you can do besides stand there trying not to soil yourself. It was decided to have my wife get on school intercom and call people back to have picture retaken. Never let them see you sweat… or soil yourself. You lose credibility when that happens. And nobody wants to stand near you. :>)

I had made a critical mistake when setting up my equipment. I was setting the white balance on my camera and had set camera to manual focus while doing so. Forgot to set back to auto-focus when done. Things were good until I fat fingered the focus ring instead of the zoom ring. Completely unaware what I had done and so focused (no pun intended) on my duties, I had taken 8 or 9 photos before noticing my mistake. Always triple check setup before getting started and then re-check frequently while shooting.

I had a photo session late last week with the 7-1/2 month old daughter of one of my daughter’s teachers. Some children at this age don’t sit up well or for very long. Their attention spans are not very long either. Most of the time, you end up child wrangling far more than you do photographing them. Occasionally, Mom and/or Dad feels the need to jump in and direct the session or get involved by calling the child’s name, making noises, or perhaps feeling that this very moment is the time they should give little Connor his favorite toy truck to hold onto. “Oh, how cute is Connor with his truck?” You know, Connor was really cute while I had his attention focused on me. He was cute while I was getting some great shots of him playing with the toys I provided. He’s not so cute any longer, now that he’s not looking at the camera and is solely focused on his toy truck you gave him.

Gladly, none of these things happened during the photo session of the previously referenced young lady. I will allocate more time for the session when working with young ones. I need to account for delays such as when things occur, like in the previous paragraph. Sometimes, a baby needs to have a bottle, an outfit change, or maybe some time being held by Mom or Dad. You also need to ensure you get good shots and babies don’t always cooperate. Their attention is here one moment, and then it shifts to something else.

I had a fun time photographing K. B. last Friday morning. The parents of K. B. behaved, didn’t interrupt and got involved when was appropriate. The best thing was I got some really great shots. One in particular has found its way into my all time favorites.

I just love her expression and those blue eyes!

Until next time,

Mark