Tag: "Franklin tn"

Another Senior Session in Downtown Franklin

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“Now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art.” – Neil Gaiman

This was kind of an unusual week for me in having two senior guy sessions in one week, since I normally shoot more family sessions.  Both the guys chose downtown Franklin as their location, which works for me because I love this spot for Senior Portraits.  It’s not the best place for small kids, as I like to let the little ones roam free, without worrying about traffic, and sometimes downtown requires patience for waiting on other people or cars to move out of a scene.  But it’s perfect for seniors, and I adore all the colors, shapes and textures. 

I have to say, I wasn’t sure at first about senior sessions because photographing young children was my first passion.  But I truly enjoy the different opportunity that photographing these young men and women offer.  It’s fun to be able to plan a shot out in more detail, and to focus on the framing and perspective without fear of losing the moment.  With active toddlers, you don’t get much of a say so on the exact location and posing, so Seniors are a really fun change for me. 

There was one spot in a back alley that I came to at my first session this week and I took a few photos there. But I found myself wishing I had done more with the spot, so I was excited to go back for this session. I just love the perspectives and colors in the alley.  It was so much fun.

I enjoyed getting to know Jack.  It turns out, my daughter played Hockey with his younger brother last season, but I didn’t even realize that until we were chatting during the session. Such a small world!

Senior Session in Downtown Franklin

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“Follow your passion, stay true to yourself, never follow someone else’s path unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost and you see a path then by all means you should follow that.” – Ellen Degeneres

I’m literally about to run out the door to go work some more on Cheetahfest 2018, but I just couldn’t help but share these photos of my senior session in downtown Franklin on Monday.  I was afraid it would get rained out, but it turned about to be a gorgeous day!  I am quite aware that my senior guys aren’t really into having their photos taken, and are generally just there because the love their mamas, but Drew was such a great sport, and I love the way his photos turned out. 

And its never a dull moment in Franklin.  During our session, we were cheered on by passing cars, offered a donut in exchange for a photo for a scavenger hunt, photobombed by a random stranger, and offered free popcorn from a very sweet attendant at the Franklin Theater who noticed us outside taking photos.  I love this town!  

Ok, I’m out the door, but if you don’t have any plans on Friday, please join me at my other “job” (PTO President) and come out to food trucks, bounce houses, a petting zoo, games and more on Friday at Chapman’s Retreat Elementary Cheetahfest from 5:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.  There is also an AMAZING silent auction. You can also bid on a session from me!  If you were planning on booking a session before the end of summer, this is a great way to give back to a great cause. Hope to see you there!  

Let’s be silly – Family Portrait Session at Harlinsdale Farms

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If I had to say what age group is the most challenging for photos, I’d have to say it is big kids / tweens.  Most people with toddlers, assume their toddlers are the hardest.  Some photographers might agree, but not for me.  Toddlers are fast, and always do the unexpected, and will never ever stand in the spot you want them to stand in, but they are always, without fail, 100% authentic. 

But by the time they become big kids, children have been conditioned to act in a certain (wrong) way for portrait sessions.  They “behave” and stand wherever you ask them to, with this forced, uncomfortable smile on their faces, talking to me through clenched, smiling teeth when I ask them questions.    

So I’ve had to find ways to overcome this.  

Usually, this means playing and being silly. 

Sometimes I think parents must think I’m nuts to have somehow turned their well-behaved children into giggling, energetic goof balls by the end of the session, but honestly I prefer that to stiff children I see at the beginning of a session.  I am so thankful to the parents in this session because they stood back and let me guide the children in play and silliness instead of trying to force a certain pose or photo that they had in their heads. 

My guidance varies depending on the family, but for this session we discussed what vegetables are gross, embarrassing moments (they preferred to tell me one of a friend’s moments instead of their own, but it still worked), and whether or not Daddy is a good dancer.   We raced, played tag and roughhoused.  It was perfection. These two twins were just so much fun to watch. I loved seeing them interact with each other and trying to capture the connection between them.  And those Freckles!!!  ❤️❤️❤️

Capturing the Moments – Harlinsdale Farms Family Portrait Session

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I just love this session.  The colors, the light, the giggles….and it reminded me of the connection between my own girls.  I hope that my client loves them as much as I do.  I try to capture the kind of images that I want for my own family…not just posed photos of everyone looking at the camera, but those moments between a family….a look, or a giggle, or they way they are naturally holding hands as we move on to our next spot.  In one of the images below of the father and the older daughter…they thought that I was only shooting pics of mom and younger daughter, but I saw them hanging out together and just had to take a moment to capture them too when they weren’t looking. My absolute favorite images are at the very end of the session, when the girls were just playing with each other.  That pure joy that you can see on their faces is just the kind of thing that truly inspires me.  They are absolutely stunning. 

Harlinsdale Farms had no less than 10 other sessions going on while I shot this one…probably more like 15.  It was insane, but it was SUCH a gorgeous December day.  The trick to shooting in such a busy place is to find where you want to shoot that is in the light you want to shoot and try to frame out any unwanted people or elements.  That’s not always possible though, especially when you are trying to capture a real connection between active, moving children, so that is where photoshop comes in, to eliminate unwanted people in the frame when absolutely necessary.

I also want to take a moment to point out that these images were shot when Fall was completely gone.  There is pretty much no more leaves left at Harlinsdale and everything is mostly dead.  This is a winter session for sure, despite the warm weather, but I absolutely adore it.  I point this out because so many people are dead set on shooting “Fall” portraits. Well sadly that really pretty season only lasts for a few weeks, but I 100% believe that beautiful images can be created any time of year.  

One thing you absolutely must tell me before your family portrait session.

Posted in Aspen Grove Park, Big Kids, Little Kids, Portrait SessionsTagged , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Whenever you book a family portrait session with me through my online calendar, I ask that you answer a few questions to help me prepare for the photo session.  The only question that is not optional is the names and ages of the people being photographed (because I study the names in advance).  I understand that my clients are very busy, so if you don’t have time to give me a detailed description of little Sally’s likes and dislikes, that’s OK.  It’s great for me to know that Johnny loves Dinosaurs or Ann’s favorite TV show is Paw Patrol.  Those things help me to have conversation starters with the children, and sometimes help to get a genuine smile.  But if you don’t have time to put that, it’s OK…I’ll wing it.  

I really love knowing why the photo session is important to you.  I remember one family who told me about the rough year they’d each had individually, but that they wanted this photo session to show how they were always there for each other in the rough times and the good.  I don’t know why knowing these things helps me with a session, but somehow they do.  I guess I feel more connected to the family.  I’ve always loved the quote, “I don’t shoot what it looks like…I shoot how it feels.”  The more I know going into a session, the easier it is to capture the feelings. 

But again, I can get away with not knowing these things if you don’t have time to fill out a detailed survey. But there is one thing that I absolutely NEED to know before your family session.

If you have a child who is very shy, I absolutely need to know this in advance.  The reason is that when I read that your child is shy, I automatically know I need to approach her differently. While her sister is chatting my head of about school, and vacations, and puppies, I approach her cautiously, quietly, trying not to overwhelm her.  I’ll let her get use to me before I really approach her at all.  Then I’ll maybe ask her a few quiet questions and feel her out.  I might let her see my camera…or whatever it feels like it might take to help her feel more comfortable.  I have all of this in my head before the session, because you’ve told me before hand what your little one needs.  It didn’t take much to tell me this…just a few words, but it makes all the difference in the world because if I approach her the wrong way, she could get overwhelmed and shut down.  And that’s definitely not what I  want. 

So take a look at the pictures below.  Can you tell which one is the shy sister?  No?  Good. 

And I just want to say that all three of these little girls were amazing.  I had so much fun with them.  They are totally my happy place. So much energy, and wonder and joy.  They were just perfect.