When people come to me and ask about my job or what it takes I tell them three things:
1) Patience
2) Creativity
3) Can’t be afraid to be a goof ball
“Okay look here and smile” just doesn’t fly in the realm of children’s photography. You need to be silly and have different tricks up your sleeve to get the kids to smile, different antics.
My all time favorite, that always works (well almost always) on almost anyone over the age of three, is “Puppy Farts!”
There have been two times that my go to has failed me.
The most recent of the two events was this spring. It was a Friday evening after the parents were out of work and the kids out of school. There was a talent search for Disney happening right across the street the next day and the two girls I had in the studio REALLY wanted to be on Hannah Montana. Mom came in with the girls for some head shots and other photos to add to their “portfolios”.
Anna, the 7 year old was a doll and super easy to work with, the camera absolutely loved her. Simple, easy, painless.
Melissa, the 11 year old was a different story. I got the feeling she wasn’t as into this whole deal as much as mom or Anna were.
Filled with that pre-teen angst and low self-esteem that all girls go through at some point, her shots weren’t coming as easily as her sisters. I could tell that the smiles were forced so I pulled out my tried and true, Puppy Farts! It went a little something like this:
“Okay Melissa, look right up here and say ‘Puppy Farts!’”.
“Puppy Farts!”
And there it was, the beautiful natural smile I was looking for, followed by Melissa running out of the room completely embarrassed.
I don’t know if it was because she realized what she had said or if it was because she actually let her guard down for a moment and smiled, really smiled.
She chalked it up to “having a really bad day”, apologized and after a breather came back and we finished the shoot. Needless to say I didn’t pul out Puppy Farts! for the remainder of the day.
The first time Puppy Farts! ever backfired was a doozie! It was my first ever holiday season in a busy studio. I was shooting a family of four, mom, dad, and two older kids. The son was only a few years younger than I was, and smoking hot!
I don’t tend to just bust right into my extreme antics with adult shoots as by this time people have perfected their photo smile. Sometimes it works and other times you can tell its forced and looks almost painful. I try having everyone look up and say “Hi” or “Pizza” or some other mundane word (besides “Cheese” which only leads to cheesy smiles). Most of the time this works, but sometimes I have to break out the big guns, in this case, Puppy Farts!
For this family “Hi” and “Pizza” and the sort worked for a while but I could sense that I wasn’t getting their real smiles
So I busted it out—and it backfired! The kids and dad all said “Puppy Farts!” and it worked like a charm. Mom however, without missing a beat says, loudest of all, “Pussy Farts!”
As shocked, and slightly embarassed as I was, my retort was, “I think that’s called something else”.
Hotty McHotty Pants replies, “Yeah, a queif”.
No one could keep a straight face the rest of the sitting.
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