This morning during our breakfast, I looked out our patio door and noticed that the sun was burning off the dew from on top of the girls' outdoor toys. I could see the steam lifting and was struck by just how beautiful the light was in that spot. I couldn't believe I hadn't thought to experiment with the light in our backyard yet and quickly grabbed my camera.
I didn't want to do a full "formal" session, I truly just intended to take a few snaps of Little Pea to test out the lighting and background of our yard. She was freshly rested and had a nice full tummy from breakfast, conditions could not have been more perfect.
Then the typical trouble hit: my girls will NOT look at the camera. No amount of coaxing, bribing, pleading seems to have any effect on them. I get a lot of glancing off into the distance or sometimes I'm blessed with a shot like this:
This is Little Pea saying, "Cheeeeeese." Ironically, I didn't even ask her to do that. She sees the camera and has somehow figured out that is the appropriate thing to say. When she's not purposely avoiding eye contact, I get the cheese pose.
Today I have no answers for this. I just wanted to share some of my own personal photo struggles so you aren't fooled by all the other shots I post. I love that photography always has another challenge for me, it's what keeps me interested and trying and I definitely do not have it all figured out.
How about you? Do you have a particular photo challenge you're struggling with right now?
Linda
I agree with "don't tell the kids to say cheese." What does work with any child I have ever photographed was to thee them to say "stinky feet!" This always seems to work for me specialy with the little ones. Hope this can work for you.
Julie
My daughters do exactly the same thing right now! They learned to say cheese from a few of our friends and it drives me nuts. I'm hoping the looking away and saying cheese will disappear as they get older (they are 3 and 4).