Who doesn’t love a good portrait? The way the light hits the face at the perfect angle or the way your head is tilted in the most flattering position. How your shoulder is moving toward the camera to draw your eye in and the way your hair is perfectly smooth with not a frizz in sight. Sounds great right? Well…..yes and no. A lot of times these types of portraits don’t turn out as you hoped. They end up being stiff and you feel very uncomfortable when in the moment. Now let’s imagine you are 4 years old and are asked to pose like that and keep yourself still for more than 30 seconds. It’s pretty impossible for those little squirmy bodies to do. What if I told you that those things don’t matter too much to me when it comes to documenting kids? That getting their true personalty to shine through isn’t about the way you have them tilt their head but more about the way you talk to them during the session.

In 2019 I started to document my daughter in my garage. No fancy lighting set up, just a paper backdrop and an opened garage door with natural light streaming in. It was a quick and easy way for me to grab a few images of her at that age or time in her life. I was getting tired of finding the best light in a dreamy location and forcing my than toddler to pose for me. I wish I would have started these simple garage portraits sooner but I never thought it could be so simple. I always tried too hard to get her in that perfect light, in that perfect location, never once thinking all I needed was my garage and her personality. While I do still love a beautiful dreamy outdoor location, at times it only brings on frustration, not to mention having to fight to get a child packed up in a car with all their gear. I realized over time all I really wanted was to see her true personality shine through so I can remember how she was when she was that age. Their personalities change literally over night so grabbing a few quick pics of them & often is so important. But dragging them around to pretty locations all the time just to capture their missing tooth is not fun for them.

Prompt: So tell me about your boyfriend.

Only once I realized all of this was when my Pop Up Minis with BIG Personality was born. It’s such a simple concept but it has a big impact. Basically, just let them be and capture that. I still give prompts but they are geared more toward a child. Tell them silly jokes to get their real laugh, ask them who their boyfriend is and see them blush, tell them to give you their fakest laugh ever and snap at the very end of the fake laugh to get their true reaction. Play music and have them dance the latest dance trend. Rather than tell them to angle their face to the side so the light hits their chin perfectly, tell them to swing their head back and forth to get the movement of their really cool pink hair that you let them have during a world wide pandemic. These are just a few of the things I do during one of these sessions.

Have them snuggle a lovey if they are scared of being photographed.

Don’t get me wrong, there are times I still will ask them to turn their head a certain way. But it’s not often. I try and keep it fun…and quick…quick is key with these since kids loose interest very fast and can melt down at the drop of a dime. Which is totally fine because let’s be real…melt downs are part of their personalty...some kids just do it much better than others :) So I make sure to capture that as well if it happens.

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“But I only have a cell phone. How can I capture monthly pics of my kids before they get too big?!”. That’s ok! These are really easy to do at home even if you don’t have a backdrop or are just a cell phone. This is a great way to practice! You can grab an old sheet or use a solid wall and grab your cell phone and just capture them…silly faces and all. Keeping the background simple is key in order to keep the focus on the child and not draw attention away from them. I like to use my garage because I find the light to be great but you definitely don’t have to. Most importantly is just documenting them right now!

Once I started actually doing these for clients, I also started expanding my backdrop collection. Always keeping them simple though. I never want to draw attention away from the kids and their true personalities.

I still use my garage for these. Nothing fancy at all. All I need is the garage and 15 minutes to capture the magic that every kid has inside :)

Ready to Book a Pop Up Mini?

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Now that we are heading into Spring (finally!), I have some new fun bright backdrops and I am soooo excited to get the kids in front of it. Reach out so we can make some magic with your ever changing child!