It’s flattering when any family chooses us to photograph their children’s portraits and even more so when they’ve travelled some distance to get to our photography studio! Introducing the very lovely 4 year old Poppy from Biggleswade in Bedfordshire.
Poppy arrived fast asleep after her drive from home and immediately informed me, before she had even entered the studio, that she didn’t want her photographs taken today thank you very much! Not as uncommon as you might think. However, after giving her plenty of time to come to and take in her new surroundings (plus give mum a well deserved cuppa), she soon warmed to the idea of having her portraits shot.
Not rushing the children we photograph is very much the secret of our success, or at least a very significant part of the overall recipe. We always take lots of time to get to know the family and try to build up a genuine rapport, one of the best bits of our jobs and really vital if you want to capture their real characters in the portraiture.
Not only was Poppy a very confident and beautiful child to photograph she was also a an absolute joy to chat with, behaving much older than her 4 years and providing us with lots of fun and laughter, as I hope her portraits demonstrate…
After shooting what I’d call our signature style portraits of Poppy in our favoured warm tone black and white, we still had plenty of time left to try out a few different ideas, improvise a little.
Since she’d come dressed in the most beautiful ballerina style dress it seemed obvious to try a few full length portraits giving her the freedom to move around the studio more naturally. We really love these shots and have chosen to edit them with a very soft desaturated colour palette, enhancing the ethereal feel of her floaty dress and her delicate features.
We could have happily photographed Poppy all day long but understandably her 4 year old patience began to wear a tad thin! A massive thanks to Poppy and of course her lovely mum for visiting us, we very much look forward to seeing you again in the future.