Family Photos - Garage Portraits with a Broom
Taking photos of my son is what inspired me to become a family photographer. there’s nothing I love more than taking artful and authentic photos of my family and hanging them in our home. Having art in the home is great, but when you can adorn your house with beautiful and creative photographs of your family it means so much more. I am 1000% a fan of printing family photos and hanging them on your walls.
In this photo, I told my son to pose with his broom. Ever since he could walk, my son has loved playing with brooms and mops. So when I had this background set up for a photo shoot with another family set up in our garage, I decided to grab a quick portrait before I broke everything down. Raylan walked up with his broom to see what I was doing so I told him to jump in front of the camera for a few quick portraits. But as I typically do when photographing my son, I never tell him to smile. The only thing I will ask him to do is look at me, stand somewhere, or maybe show me something he has. In this case, he was already holding the broom so I asked him to stand in front of the camera because I wanted to photograph him with the broom. Then I asked him to sit on the chair and show me his broom. I snapped a few photos and then he walked away. I try to never make him take photos longer than he is willing because I never want him to hate having his photo taken. I’ve photographed kids in the past who hate having their photo taken and you can tell that their mom, as well intentioned as she may be, has shouted “smile” or “say cheese” so many times that the kid now hates doing it. I think we can all learn something from this and also embrace that your kid doesn’t have to have a huge beaming smile in every photo. We should appreciate genuine and authentic expressions and moments which aren’t always perfect. Sometimes it’s an innocent look as they gaze off into the distance or a more quiet moment as they look at the camera with a genuine but straight look on their face.