“What we do before the session directly impacts our success in creating beautiful, meaningful portraits.”
-Tim W.
This is why we meet and discuss some simple guidelines at our pre-planning session to help set everyone up for a relaxed, successful session.
Because we photograph many families with young children, we like to begin with a few helpful insights we call “The Enemies of Creativity.”
As children are born and grow, there are seasons meant to be preserved—not only for you, but for them, their children, and generations beyond.
Let’s get started…
ONE
Wrong Ages Together
…without adding the stability of the parent(s).
Wrong Ages Together
As we often say, there are many enemies of creativity, and the pre-planning session is the time to overcome them!
Let’s look at the first—very young children in the portrait without the parents, especially if the combination is an infant and young toddler!
It quickly becomes a session where the main goal is to get the children looking the same way at the same time, with a decent expression and not crying.
So, in a perfect world, our goals would be:
• Photograph each child individually if they are under five years old. We can create a stunning portrait if we can work with each child alone.
• Include one or both parents who become the stability for that child.
• Do a family portrait with all of the children PLUS the parents.
For the best experience, we often include parents in the portrait as the “glue” that brings everyone together.
Babies are happiest in your lap, and toddlers feel most secure in mom or dad’s arms. Asking toddlers to hold a baby sibling usually leads to frustration (and tears!), so parents provide the stability that helps everyone relax.
Parents add stability.
Comfort
In Our Facility
Comfort In Our Facility
This “enemy” may sound strange as we are all about making our clients feel comfortable, but let’s qualify what we mean and the ages it applies to. With any child under five years old, we are concerned about the kids getting too comfortable with us and our studio to the point that they start running through the camera room and playing.
So, we ask that the parents carry their children into the dressing room from their car, not putting them down at all if they are dressed and ready to go. We start the session very quickly with any family members that are ready.
We want to grab the intimate images quickly and the beginning of the session, when the children, especially toddlers, are trying to figure out their surroundings and are a little timid.
Most of the time, we are talking about Relationship black and white imagery as this style is what we strongly suggest our clients do when their kids are very young as we can include the parents.
We have found that once you let a small child get down and they start running, what are the chances they want to be picked up again? Very slim! They don’t ever run out of energy, so we just don’t let their feet touch the ground for as long as we can hold it off.
Too Many Voices In Room THREE
Too Many Voices In The Camera Room
The next thing to overcome; too many people in the camera room while each individual child is being photographed, distracting the child.
So, the next suggestion we make is to ask for any extra people to step out of the camera room if we feel we can get better results.
We do ask ahead of time in the pre-planning session so it is not a surprise and we have a plan.
Many times, children are better when we interact with them alone rather than with an audience.
With too many people around, children lose their focus and start paying attention to the people in the room instead of watching us for instructions.
We cannot compete with mom, dad or a sibling.
Coaching a “camera smile” is a no no! FOUR
Coaching a “camera smile”
is a no no!
When we meet with the parents for the pre-planning session, we talk about the strategy for the best outcome and that includes them not instructing their kids to practice their smiles.
Although this seems like common sense to a parent, once we tell them how hard it is to break through a camera smile their kids have practiced, they understand!
People can’t produce great expressions on command!
If you tell a child to smile, it will be fake, so we ask them not to practice any expressions.
What we ask our clients to do instead is to help us learn the personalities of each child and then
We take notes about the child’s personalities, pets, friends, favorite everything and so on to allow us to break the ice when they are with us.
Clothing
Variety In Clothing
Too many outfits. Too many set changes. Too many options.
All of this “variety” can quickly become chaotic—and when chaos takes over, it distracts from the original vision for the portrait. This is an enemy of creativity.
Clothing, in particular, becomes an enemy when there are too many outfit changes—especially with a small child. Young children rarely enjoy being changed multiple times, and what begins as a calm, meaningful experience can quickly turn into frustration or tears. Instead of a peaceful, connected session, the focus shifts to managing clothing rather than capturing emotion.
Limiting outfits is one of the keys to creating stunning portraits. After all, it’s often the smallest details—the expression, the connection, the quiet in-between moments—that make an image magical. Those moments are easily lost when variety becomes more important than creating one truly wonderful portrait.
We approach every session with a clear vision and intended outcome. Too many changes pull us away from that purpose, making it nearly impossible to fully bring the vision to life. When we simplify, we create space—for creativity, for connection, and for portraits that feel timeless rather than busy.
“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”
Aaron Siskind
Our physical address is: Walden’s Photography 3229 Summit Square Place Suite 100 Lexington, Ky. 40509 Our mailing address is: Walden’s Photography 2901 Richmond Road Lexington, Ky. 40509 Our website is: www.waldensphotography.com
