Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Living Room with Baby Maria and Mom

Her name is maria maria and what is yours my name is katherine katherine katherine and maria hi maria how old are you eight months eight months oh hello did you see that she just wait why hello welcome queen lovely so we're gonna do a home setting and we're gonna talk a little bit about what we could d'oh one of the things I had mentioned earlier is I want to clear out the carpet if we've got ah lot of messy messy carpet then I would take things off if we've got a carpet with a lot of patterns and kind of a lot of contrasts and stuff like that I roll it up or are a shoot on the hardwood near it with the carpet like this I could do a lot especially with a baby um so we're going to try something really fun we're gonna have both of you guys together and I kind of just want to show you guys in your element so you know it's almost like I'm doing many things I want to tell me your name again katherine katherine katherine katherine count tamara tamara nice to meet you catholic raise maria yes...

maria yes or baby baby you know maria that's actually my second middle name it's my middle name er she's we should take over the world oh right I'm talking to you and like no one can hear you okay you're saying maria is your middle name yes wonderful mine as well and it's your first names so you're winning. All right, so what I'm thinking is in terms of sitting down there are of them yes, we dio um okay so I think we're gonna do is uh try something where I'm gonna clean out the space entirely and I'm gonna simulate basically I'm gonna leave this right here in case we need it I'm gonna simulate that we would be in the carpet in a client living room on dh using the full expanse of the carpet which means in a smaller apartment or a smaller home or just simply a smaller carpet you're going to shoot on the very from a very far way back and you're gonna have a client's up near the front so you can make it seem like there's mohr and that couch is out of focus so I'm not going to move the couch in this case um off the scene but I will move it back. Do you mind if I move your couch? Not at all thank you. And that sounds silly, but I always ask if people mind because they might all right, so why don't you guys just have a simple seat right here, please? You know what? So I so my do you mind if I take my shoes off in your home? Not at all awesome, all right um, so remember earlier I said one of the things that I love to do, we did us a little bit of the bed. Was that birds? I sort of feel you could do that anywhere. One of my favorite images I ever shot of a baby before I met maria, um, was a an image where we'd walked into an incredibly clever department because they were moving soon and she told me on the phone and we were going to be fine. But the photograph was a bird's eye view where everything it was just out of the frame. It was literally just this much out of the frame. If I'd pulled back farther would be like, are you kidding me? But right in here is all we needed. Let me ask the question, how does maria feel about nudity? She'll be all right. Let's do that. Let's. Uh, let's. Pull it off. Who doesn't love being naked? That's what? She said all right, let's, try a little bit in ordered it. Come here, baby. Can you help me? A little girl. Here we go. You know what? She might have to give her a hug. So this little element of simply getting to know your subject is actually really important when you're talking about a baby because they want you want them to lack eyes on you and see you and not saying that you're some looming figure coming in the scene right now she's just amazed at my talking and talking and talking um so we're just gonna have a few things this one is just for me this is nothing no do you want to go right down or do you not want to go right down? I'm trying to get these kids right down in the eight seconds we have let's go pro quick we'll come back down together. Okay, ready? Alright. That's got a mama horseshoe canyon and you know it would be really cool. Am I missing something here? I'm getting the feeling that I am missing something over here. Is that true? Is that true? Remember I said having an on camera flash could make it you have to keep switching it back and forth for vertical or horizontal I'm gonna take it off and I'm going to say right here coming to a close in the doorway just simply that's a microphone um and then to be favor, hold her out and pull her into you again. All I'm going to do is try to capitalize on the the action that did something last time and often I could get something again keep her out for a while just for a wire and all I'm doing again back to the system I'm setting up my settings making sure I'm ready to shoot when I actually get the moment and then oh there rico that's a good one that's a good one go ah that's really lovely and then I would come in like this that seeing me make sure I have that set up for you something like this when I actually deliver um it's a little bit of a lag there we go let's do it again oh are you kidding me? That's not normal that's awesome ok that's fantastic oh there's so much I love about that remember I said I shoot a little too wide to have a lot of room to do with it, especially with the eight hundred so I have a lot I can do with that I feel like anything and even here is just gonna be worse but we're still going to do that let's try one where you have her flipped facing you um and imagine if you will this chicken with this guy this chicken is this your baby chicken let's head legs. So this is maria and I'm going to say uh, maria and I'm gonna put her like this and then my hair's gonna be like this and she's gonna be like that towards the light ok and then let me see your hair I love your tattoos could take off your scarf yeah ok that's my uh my rag my baby rag your baby rag so there's all kinds of substances on this purpose that's awesome it's funny I was once I was once uh talking teo friend of mine who has four kids the guy and as I was talking to him my son walked by and I literally just cut it took some face liquids off him and I just wasn't thinking I just can't grab like that and mid conversation he looks mean uh what did you just dio I like you for kids you've never just wipe the nose just like no does that his wife was right behind us she's like ideo all right so we'll try this I'm going to try the hug you love in your heart okay how much do you love tattoos this photographer's oh my goodness we want to go this way all right? We're going to try to get her hodgdon right there huh? Teo teo she's like this where is this I like that do that again she's not sure about that. Ah look at that all right exactly like you are till this way again I have to work with the existing light I have in this home and I've got a door this is the doorway that's our doorway um hey audience go ahead and give her that again laugh she loves that where's my where's my reflector I'm gonna want it for this oh all right let's try that again. Whoa this is the monsters like this is large for baby I'm gonna use the smaller one all right, here we go, baby here we go, baby all right audience give it to me you know and also I need you for this give it to me about it ladder more ah and that's the that's the best thing about babies you smile they smile back oh, very girl that's coming up oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness I would do that same shot with more even catch lights although I can fix that in post no problem let's try that oh, my goodness. Oh, that is just amazing. You are incredible. You know what casting call you came from but I'm happy you did, huh? Look at that uh okay, beautiful I'm gonna try the birdseye let's see if we can do it hey, we're gonna go down on the ground here it is ah, I love those baby who is that baby? Is that you? That is you um for some reason it's not going back right now oh, there we go there we go. I love that so that was member I said I wanted to do that one again and fix the catch lights that's what I got to dio and if I want to be a real perfectionist which I would have time for on a shoot I would say one more time but mommy will see how we went to a little farther away a little more distance because I don't your nose escaping inside the years let's do that one more time because now that we have this amazing trick let's do it one more time please. Okay, now what we know it works let's see e think somebody somebody loves a laugh track wow it's hard to just take marie oh are you going to give her that kiss that's also awesome. All right, let's go down to the ground um this obviously you khun do simply against a wall um in a house without any problems I I love that oh my gosh, how adorable is that? I think she likes you. Um all right, so let's see if we can't do the fourth thing now let's just try it. Kim you ah! And you know what? What if you did deserve burt's, right? You're just like kind of snuggled her belly a little bit it's good getting comfortable oh, I have to get out of my own light here this isn't symbolism I actually literally have to get out of my own light here oh, that good yes and then try to jump up a second doing so do me a favor when you when you give this kiss is kind of jump back a second right oh theo all right she's got you ah she's probably got your hair that's also my hair back you're ready to try try jumping up like completely vertical for second huh ticket ticket ticket ticket ticket here do me a favor hold her feet really close to her chin for a second and then when I say release released hold on let me get all set up all right ready we're gonna we're gonna let it release as soon as we say release one to ring back in bringing back in theater thing to do we can keep playing I know we have time here we can keep playing with the toes and get them right where you want him and they will stay you keep doing over again they kind of memorize that theater thing I could do is a beautiful horizontal and then try to just hold her down and see if you can get her to study study mmm mmm mmm mmm ah hee hee let's try a little bit yeah let's try this if she's doing okay oh oh tio tio no wait just to be a little careful the light yeah there are ways that I was trying to shoot that without the cable in it teo ah james these eyes cracking me up oh my goodness oh my goodness! Ah oh my goodness this way but what are you doing? What are you doing making that she's making a sauce and she's gonna need her privacy we're done wonderful. Thank you. Wow, that was I mean totally that's amazing that by the way is not normal in that it was so easy can you see er just gorgeous expression really bright sharp lights I'm going in there we've got the whole thing for cropping so um just lovely I don't know what it's not turning yes, I love the catch lights I love the cash lights and then what I would do with this obviously goes out I kind of cropped in I would leave obviously all the hands in I would come down reason I have a little bit of a cropping issue with the tethering but that that is the framework but I would be pulling out with the hands always shown and cropped at uh the middle of the thighs and then soften that shadow on her chest in post and I'm in love with that image fantastic splash from long island new york wonders if you ever bring props for the baby hats. Blankets? Never, never but I will you to me my philosophy on props is that if something is gonna be an image um that is an extra I wanted to be something meaningful to the child on the other day, when we shot the bed, said with a couple of those little props, that's, the first time I've you to me, like, but like her bringing the chicken, no, cool, that I don't have a stuffed chicken. I love that, yeah, I want to be something that matters to them and make the whole thing more meaningful. Yeah, all right, well, thank you very much for this segment. It's. Been awesome, watching you deal with both and ideal child, and maybe some more exciting, fun kids. Teo, like my kids, like awesome kids. Actually, we love those kids.