boy with flowers in his toes

Sometimes I’m convinced it takes next to no creativity at all to be a photographer of young children, only patience, stamina, and the ability to react quickly. And on the rare occasion I think I have some brilliant idea, the odds of a youngster going along with me on it are slim at best. So I no longer kid myself, I know who’s in control of the baby/toddler/pre-schooler shoot……..and it ain’t me. But as ever-humbling and exhausting as this can be, when it comes right down to it I would have it no other way. (I think I mean this.)

I’ve photographed this young boy and his little brother many times over the past couple of years, and even though I see them fairly often, I always know I will be led in a direction much different than I’ve been in previously with them, and so eagerly anticipate what new terrain I’ll be encountering when we meet again.

The focus of my last session with the boys was the younger brother’s two-year portraits. It turned out he wasn’t much in the mood for this though, and took all the negotiating powers that his mother and I could muster to get anything at all portrait worthy. (This is where the exhausting part comes in.)

Towards the end of the shoot while the mom and I were still diligently working towards getting the toddler’s bad attitude turned around, I noticed his older brother sitting in an area of nice soft lighting and pleasant background, peaceably arranging weed-flowers between his toes. I think he was enjoying his current status of “the good son” this particular morning, along with the fact that the pressure of the shoot was not at all on him. Mom and I tried to add the grumpy birthday boy to this idyllic scene, but met with little success.

I wonder if next time that I’m perplexed on how to add a little visual interest to an otherwise bland adult portrait, I might suggest that my grown subject weave a few flowers through her toes while singing softly? Worked for my little friend here!

~Cynthia