Who is thinking about their Holiday photos in August? Me of course! Late summer early fall is the perfect time to have you holiday portraits done. Why? Because the weather is perfect. Everyone still has a touch of the summer sun left on their skin and there are many choices of outdoor back drops. So book today and check one thing off your holiday list early!
photograph
Photo Obsessed
In this “new” world of never-ending selfie taking, there seems to be no shortage in photos. This is a good thing. Maybe not the duck faces, but the capturing the moment. Think of the old photos that you have. When you see them, they bring you back to a time, stir up memories. How often do we hear something like “This was the Easter when I was 6, and I’m wearing my favorite dress!”, or “do you remember that night, this was taken at John’s house”. Even better, “wow, you look a lot like your Grandpa when he was your age.”
Without photos, we would depend on memory. Human memory, which gets fuzzy with time. Photos can bridge time, photos can fill in the gaps, photos can bring smiles to our faces. So keep snapping away, but maybe leave the duck face at home.
The Paris H and Kim K Effect in Photography
As a photographer, I am not a fan of Paris Hilton. Her duck face, hand on the hip posing technique has made my job harder. Not everyone can pull off the duck face look, in fact no one really can. Now the hand on the hip, that is hit or miss. As a photographer who shoots a lot of teens, I see it often. I want to capture who the teen really is, not who they think they should look like.
A few years after Paris, Kim Kardashian takes over reality television. Not only does Kim’s derriere take over, so does her speech patterns. Teenagers are now sticking out there tush to get a more desirable booty. Did you ever listen to teens or twenty somethings in line at Starbucks? Their conversations go something like this, “Like, o h – m y – G o d – d i d – y o u – s e e- h e r – o u t f i t?” It is a slow drawn out 80’s Valley Girl talk. Quite frankly it is just as annoying as the Valley Girl talk was in the 80’s. I want to tell these young ladies that speaking that way makes them sound less intelligent, but I digress and close my Mom my mouth.
So here I am, trying to take a photo of a fourteen year old, sixteen year old, you fill in the age. The session often goes like this: First the hand goes on the hip, the booty gets stuck out, the chest is pushed in the opposite direction and the lips become pursed. It has to be uncomfortable, right? There is only one Paris and one Kim. I want to know this child that I am photographing. I want family and strangers to look at the finished product and understand who the subject is. Now I have a barrier to break through. I try to spend more time with this teen, talking and just having them become comfortable. I talk about school, their other activities, what their summer plans are (and maybe boys!) Trying to have them forget a camera is in front of them. After a little time, it works and we all get to see their true beauty. Girls being themselves. Girls being who THEY truly are. I have broken the Paris and Kim effect.
Mom's Gonna Snap 