Since we have been photographing families and children for many years, we have learned a few pitfalls that can really diminish the artistry of a portrait but are very easy to avoid. This post is the first in a series outlining these so that your family can have the most beautiful portraits possible. We want to see that this doesn’t ever happen at Walden’s and one of the key ways is through designing each portrait and discussing those things that are “Enemies of Creativity” and then avoiding them.
The first “enemy of creativity” is grouping children of wrong ages together. Occasionally, we get parents who come into the studio wanting their children–say ages 5 and 2 –photographed together and without their parents. That seems like a fair request. However, artistically it’s not the best idea for several reasons. One, a key to a great Walden portrait is to “engage the mind” of the child and pull out their personality, but children of such different ages are engaged in totally different ways and while you work hard to get the connection with one, the other’s attention is going fast as they are not engaged in any way. Second, as all parents know, every child has a different personality so lumping them all together surely sacrifices someone’s unique qualities. Finally, with a Walden portrait being one that touches the heart and expresses a depth as no others do, we need that time to draw that child’s true being out.
So what do we suggest? Simple, when children are very young, let’s do a family portrait so that those young children feel a bit more stable in the arms of mom and/or dad or let us use a parent as a “prop” to give relationship and creativity while providing that control we miss with young children alone. Finally, you might consider photographing the children individually and doing a series for the wall. This can be nice as it provides wonderful gifts for each child when they become adults and there will be no fighting over the one portrait of them all together.
As artists, we like to stack the deck toward what we see working every day but ultimately, it’s your call, and we will work hard to make your Walden portrait all the things you imagined it could be.
