Big Kids – Page 2 – Crystal Freemon Photography

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!!! ❤️❤️❤️

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.