Lesson two for this great course, Advanced Pro with Brooke Snow, and I’m loving the ideas, inspiration and encouragement…it’s just what I needed, especially this time of year. Late winter/early spring around the Pacific Northwest is a real questionable time of year for weather…it’s completely unpredictable and nearly impossible to plan outdoor sessions, without being somewhat flexible. My session for this week became subject to the crazy weather and it required we move the session indoors, although near the end, the rain let up and we moved outside for part of it as well. My subjects…or maybe they might call themselves “victims” for this week were our son, his girlfriend and his daughter…as well as two dogs, one being about 12 weeks old! Our granddaughter is 6 years old and very used to the camera, but had just returned home from a classmates birthday party, so was a tad bit “energized” and the dogs, especially the puppy…well, totally unpredictable (even worse than the weather!). Planning and posing ideas were all running through my mind and although I was able to utilize some of them, a lot of the time, I had to just adapt to what was happening and try to keep things moving along. I suppose, I should have expected a bit of a challenge before I even began because our son tends to be a goof whenever the camera comes out…following directions was a challenge for him…he either was making crazy faces or laughing…and trying to get some “serious” photo…well, that took some work. The planning did help with that, I must say…I just moved them past those “crazy” photos into something else and in the end, I was happy with what I was able to capture. Thankfully, their living room has windows across the front, so that allowed a LOT of light coming in and my husband helped by adding some fill light with the reflector where needed…thank goodness today’s cameras are much better with higher ISO’s!! Of course, I wasn’t able to “freeze” the dogs very often, unless they were being held…just keeping them out of the photos was a challenge as they were continually “wrestling” around the living room and even under me as we were shooting! Oh, the joys of kids and animals…I love it!!
