Introducing happy, chilled out Daniel from Daventry, a gorgeous 18 month old little boy who lit the studio with the cutest of smiles. Daniel is our competition winner from an NCT event in December 2015, and its always lovely to welcome families as winners (which must be a lovely feeling).
We’re used to tearaway toddlers and pre-schoolers who know their own mind; being around little folk is our specialism, and it helps that Andy at 42 years old remains a big kid himself! Daniel was a complete joy, we’d expected a range of entertaining moments that so often comes with toddler portraits; Daniel worked naturally with us and settled into the studio unphased by the setting.
(Please click on an image to see it bigger)
Turned our we had something important in common, as Daniel’s keen on his Thomas Tank engine trains which joined forces with our own studio toy train for a quick game of choo choo, which went pleasingly fast over out newly laminated floor. Once won over, we popped him on the beanbag for some beautiful individual shots and Daniel delivered with coy smiles and chuckles. We think his images are beautiful, he looks happy, relaxed and ever so slightly cheeky which pretty much summed up his character during the shoot.
Our home based studio means we have the luxury of time to help keep the shoot relaxed by working at a pace that suits the child; children rarely deliver expressions to order and its so important to let then ‘warm up’ for he best results. We really do try and ‘read’ the shoot as we go and keep it bespoke rather than formulaic.
Daniel needed time to explore too, the studio is an interesting place for little ones to explore so we’ve made it as toddler proof as possible. In return for keeping still enough to photograph we interspersed plenty of rest breaks, which, for a toddler means permission to charge about and let off steam.
We always remind ourselves it can’t be easy to sit still for photographs when developmentally, toddlers are hard wired to explore and these candid ‘rest’ moments can be very funny to watch! Then it’s good old bribery and play time with the puppets to hold a child’s attention long enough to squeeze the last few images.
It was important to try for some family shots too and playtime with the bricks was a great way of changing mode for some more natural results with mum & dad.
To finish up, our faithful mutt Bram made a guest appearance at the studio door for some waggy tailed fuss to reward Daniel’s patience and good nature. (He really loved this, and so did Bram!)
Thanks to Daniel, mum and dad for a lovely relaxed shoot.