Story Book Children's Photography A Photojournalistic approach to children's photography
Something new for our studio is a 'story book' style of photography for children. The goal is to tell a story. To capture a moment in a child's life. In a recent session a young girl's mom was going to have a new baby. We wanted to capture this stage in her life and the things happening to her before the new baby.
We uses the Nikon 8008s and Kodak T-Max 400 CN film or TMZ 3200. The Kodak T-Max 400 CN is a wonderful new film. The beauty of the film is it is developed in regular color chemistry. It can be printed in a rich brown tone, a cool blue tone as well as traditional black and white. The black and white has a selieum toned look that is very pleasing.
I use a combination of the T-Max 400CN and PMZ 1000 in medium format. We do a lot of window and natural light photography.
We really enjoy having two cameras and two photographers working on our Children's Storybook sessions. This gives us two different perspectives. The Nikon is an amazing piece of equipment. It's automatic averaging mode and auto focus takes care of the technical side of photography. This allows us to concentrate on the artistic and story telling aspect of the session.
The Story Book sessions tend to be very creative because you get several images to tell the story. We put an album together with words, poems, titles and even 'quotes' from the child. This is designed as a Coffee Table album that documents a specific moment or period in a child's life. Be creative in coming up with themes and stories. We use the Art Leather Mezzo album with bland/blank inserts.
Here are just a few example ideas for Story Books: • Loosing the First Tooth • The First Birthday • The First Haircut • A Trip to the Zoo • A Day at the Beach • Visiting Grand Mother • The New Puppy • The New Baby
If you would like more information, we have a new book on children's photography being published by Amherst. It should be out in a few weeks. Call if you would like to reserve an autographed copy. ($29.95 plus $3 shipping.)