Children’s Fine Art Photoshoot | Child Photographer Christchurch
The other day my friend Heather came to get some plants out of my garden. I have a very large garden and she has just moved into a new house and wanted to get some plants to make the garden better. Heather and I met many years ago at an aquarium where we both worked. She is now a photographer and I’m a child photographer, Christchurch based.
A new backdrop
I had decided to test out my latest painted hand painted backdrop. It was a green grey colour on the outside and a brown grey colour on the inside creating a vignette like the old Master painters used to do. I asked her to bring her daughter Elise with her for a very short photo shoot.
Testing it out
With my backdrops I have to test them first before I get real clients in front of them. Often the paint effect that I’ve done doesn’t quite work. It may be that the texture is too much or too little. Sometimes the colour is very wrong and has very few uses.
The wrong colour backdrop
I made a very pinky orange backdrop once which only worked in a very few cases. It was more economic for me to paint over this with more neutral colours that went with more outfits.
Too much texture
I also made sure that the texture was not too strong. I already have a very strongly textured backdrop which I absolutely love but doesn’t work in all situations. Sometimes having an outfit that is very busy and a background that is very busy – the whole thing competes with the eye.
A shaved head
Elise had recently shaved her head to fundraise. She achieve about double the money that she aimed for which was wonderful. Her hair is just starting to grow back but it’s still very short. I asked her if she would like to try some dresses on and she was very keen.
A blue dress
She chose a blue dress at first but it didn’t really go to well with my seat I wanted her to sit on. It is her favourite colour though and looked very good on her.
White clothing.
Then I put her in white which complimented my new backdrop. My friend Kirsty who is moving to Australia sold me a beautiful chair in French styling. It has a gold velvet top turned legs and filigree patterns. I sat Elise on the chair and taught her how to pose.
Posing
I got her to sit up very very straight with a long neck and to point her toes. This felt unnatural to her as she is not a dancer. Her mum used to be a ballet dancer and could help.
A lot of laughs
We had a lot of laughs as Elise found the whole process quite funny. Her own mum is a photographer and takes her on a lot of outdoor shoots but doesn’t pose her like I was. The posing part was incredibly funny to her I think. Also the fact that her mum was in the room watching.
A favourite photo | Child Photographer Christchurch
I think the most favourite photo from the whole shoot was my friend Heather adjusting Elise’s hand. It showed the relationship between them and a lot of her friends found it very touching.
Be yourself
I love how Elise was being herself and having a lot of fun. She didn’t seem nervous just thought it was a great thing.
Thankful for my new backdrop | Child photographer Christchurch
I am very happy with my new backdrop it is just perfect and I’d like to thank Justinas and Eisve from makebackdrop.com. I’ve been doing the course on making backdrops and have a lot more confidence in making the perfect backdrop, or in some cases making an imperfect backdrop which adds a lot of character to my photos.