Mommy and Me

This weekend, I got myself cleaned up, bribed the tiny person, and set up my camera in the garage to create images that I would use to promote my Mommy and Me sessions in a few weeks. I had zero expectations because you never know how a photo shoot with your own child will go - and any photographer will admit that photographing clients is one thing, but your own kids can be tricky at best. However, words can not express how pleased I am with the images we captured.

I had a ‘look’ in mind - GAP style, simple, modern, casual. I set the tripod up and asked Ben to sit in place while I did a bit of manual focusing magic, then set the timer and hopped in the shot. And then did it again and again 10 more times. Somewhere in there, Ben asked if he could press the button instead of me since the tripod was just his height to capture the sitting poses. That seemed like less work for me so long as he didn’t hit any other buttons or move the camera so I said to go for it! Using all of that five-year-old energy (instead of mine) to run back and forth a handful of times, he began directing the shots. Put your hand here, smile like this, and now laugh! (Anyone who has shot with me knows I always ask people to laugh, then again out loud so that it looks real - well Ben’s been paying attention.)

Besides the pure joy and pride that I felt as he guided me through some silly and other fairly decent poses, I can absolutely speak to how much of a difference it makes with who the photographer is in front of the camera. The person you are looking at, trusting with taking your photos, is crucial to how the images turn out. They are some of my favorite images - and not just the ones of Ben and me, I mean the ones he took of me as well. Even compared to images I’ve taken of myself - the feelings I have when looking at the images that my child took while behind the camera have a bit of magic to them.

I may have set the camera settings and made good lighting choices, but he brought out the happiness in me and the images show that in every way.