Last fall I added boutique School Portraits in Walnut Creek to my portrait studio offerings. What are boutique school portraits, you may be wondering? Well, think back to your days in school – remember the long line in the gym waiting for your 30 seconds in front of the cheesy muslin backdrop and the nameless/faceless person behind the camera who plopped you down in the chair and said “say cheese”?
You did as instructed, the lights flashed in your face and then you most likely went back to class completely erasing from your mind this unmemorable experience. That is the traditional model of school portraits.
It is quick, efficient and totally devoid of style or personality. If you’re lucky your child’s eyes are open in the photo and if you’re really lucky they are actually smiling a smile that reaches their eyes and not just their lips.
I have a ton of examples of those school photos from my childhood as well as from my son’s and I’m betting so do you. Some of them are decent, but most just sit in a box as a memento of typically mediocre school photography.
As a portrait photographer that type of session doesn’t interest me. I like interacting with my subjects and I especially love it when I can get a belly laugh out of them. When I hear back from parents later that their kids had fun, well that is icing on the cake for me.
This spring I contacted preschools about doing sessions not just in fall, as is the norm, but also spring as the weather is great and the kids have grown over the year. These adorable children are just a tiny sample of the images I took out in Walnut Creek on two beautiful spring (well really almost summer) days recently. The kids ranged in ages from 5 months to almost 6 years old.
My assistants and I worked with over 100 children and most of them sat in front of my camera somewhat apprehensive about what to do and left having laughed, been tickled, gotten to play with toys and hopefully had a little fun in the couple of minutes that they posed for me.
Really I’m just a big kid at heart and I get pretty silly with them. After one class photo all the kids were gathered around giving me high five’s and laughing. That is what I call a good day at work.
To learn more about my boutique school portraits, click here.
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