Lessons

Lesson Info

Dad with Newborn Shot List

Connection shots, Dad's the protector, right? See how awkward he is? He's a pediatrician. (audience laughing) He's still awkward, he's a man. Men are awkward with babies and, if they're not, I like take, they get 100 pictures of their own because it never happens, okay? Connection shots, he's the protector. Any way you can make the baby look small or have Dad or the man in the family, even if it's a big brother, this goes for big brother shots, too, guys. Any time, or teenagers. You know I have a handful of families that they're second marriages and they've got 16-year old kids. What in the world do you do with a 16-year old boy in a newborn lifestyle photo shoot, right? I've gotten there and I'm like, "Huh, you're kind of like starting to grow a beard, "but you're not the dad," so it's like what do you do? So you make them look like the protector, okay? Make him look like a football. Have them hold the baby like a football. Every kid loves to do that who's 16, okay. You're gonna run i...

nto these situations where you're gonna have blended families, right. Any sort of blended families, okay? So just keep that in mind with men. If you have a teenage kid, think about in terms of what did we talk about with these dad shots, okay. Use dads to make the baby look tiny. I do this all the time. Holding the baby here with the hand straight down or in the pocket, like looking at the football. I'm gonna show you some of these here in a minute. Over the shoulder shots, okay? We talk about that, I'm gonna show you an example holding the baby up over the shoulder, 'cause that baby's head peeking over the shoulder looks itty-bitty, okay? Fun with siblings while holding a baby, Dad's major role in life is to be the fun person in the family, right? We as moms are the snugglers and the boo-boo helpers and those things. Some men do that, too, obviously. As a mom, I'm not the one making sandcastles, I'm taking the pictures, right, on the beach and I'm getting my tan. This is me on the beach. I'm not getting buried, but I'm good with that. Some moms are and they're way cooler than I am, not getting buried, okay, Dad's job. Think about that in terms when you're on lifestyle shoots. Which family members, which parent is the fun parent? There's always one parents that's more fun than the other. Maybe it's the mom, you know? That could be, too, whatever parent is more fun, use that parent to have fun and to show joy and to show playfulness with the siblings. Then bring the baby in, so you're gonna infuse a newborn into life, okay, so think about how is this happening in real life. Dads giving baths, right? Dads giving baths are hilarious because they do things. They eat their feet, they like put bubbles on their head, and moms are like okay, I gotta wash him and we're done. Then we gotta get to bed because I need to get to bed. So I mean we still sing songs and stuff, but some, the fun person in the relationship, will be the one doing all of those fun things in the bath. Use the fun person for the fun moments, okay? Here's some more, there's the baby peeking over, right? Looked right at me. Here's this one again, he's giggling and having fun because he's fun. There's Dad with snuggling, he was a snuggler. He's a cool guy but he's not the fun one in the family. The wife's hilarious and amazing and fun and he was like chill and like he was the snuggler of the family. Mom and I were setting up to do some shots in the other room and I came down and I came in there and he was just holding the baby. See how awkward he is holding that baby? Dads just look, maybe awkward's not the right word, just their shoulders elevate a lot, you notice that, and they're just kind of stiff, stiff, yeah. But it was wonderful and I loved the composition and I loved that room. They had a lot of fun stuff in there, so I took a picture of that, okay? Dad was snuggling the baby over there. Okay, it just looked backlit. Okay, here's more Dad shots, dads doing their thing. This one, on the side of this dad but because of the template you can't totally see it there's another one, there was a little, his little girl was sitting there next to him feeding him chips as he was holding the baby. (audience laughing) I might have that image in here later. If not, I'm gonna have to find that image, but she was sitting there feeding him chips. Oh, it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. We weren't supposed to be shooting at this time and he's half-awake. Most dads look like this not awake, and that's so funny to me because it's like, as a woman, like you don't wanna look sleepy, but as a man, it's like, you know, you capture that. If they look tired, grab it. He's in a white T-shirt, like his pajama shirt feeding the baby and he's literally, his four-year old daughter was feeding him chips. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. There he is, it was a cool blue wall, he had to do a quick email, okay, and I went in there, I'm like, "Don't move." He was emailing with his right hand, I'm like, that's a cool blue wall, and the baby's head is facing the window so we don't have any butterfly lighting, and I need to take this picture. He's like, "Really?" I'm like, "Just don't move, okay?" Dad was doing his thing. Is that not a cool shot, right? That's his office, that's his jam, that's his space, dads have spaces. Same thing above, another office shot. Same dad as down there, he was a cool dad. Holding the baby, we were over there, I was teaching a workshop in Chicago and we were in the other room setting up the shot for the little girl, and I'm like, "Where's the baby?" and like, "Where's Dad?" So I'm like, they just disappeared. And I went in there, I'm like, "Oh, they're in here, shh. "I'm gonna get this picture," so we went in there and I took the picture from outside the door. He was there on his computer holding the baby in his office, right, cool. So these are the times where you can actually capture the house and be cool. Moms are prettier and like, you know, the female role, so that's just the man look to me. This one, I loved this kitchen. We talk about finding cool elements in the home. That said family, I wanted that in the picture. I wanted these pictures in the picture. How can I use this wall, take Dad and Baby away, how can I use this wall in my picture? I need somebody standing in front of it doing something. This is a perfect opportunity to grab Dad, to grab Mom, to grab whoever, he stood there kissing the baby and he was standing straight up. It was higher, I couldn't see the family, so I strategically, "Hey, can you bend down "and kiss the baby a little bit more?" and it told a little bit more of a story. These things were organically happening. He was holding the baby like that as it was, so all I did, you see how I moved people, I literally took him from one room and I'm like, "Come here," and I'm going, I'm like, "Do that right here," okay? And you're fine to do that. That's not getting rid of lifestyle. He was already kissing the baby, he was already holding the baby, you just compositionally created a more visually-interesting photo, okay? Which is what, what's that gonna do? It's gonna set up apart from everybody else who's just concentrating on getting just connection without bringing in something that makes connection and emotion and lighting and it needs some oomph, right? And that's gonna set you apart. All right so this question had come in earlier, this is from Tasha Razi and had sort of a, she said, "What about same-sex couples? "Does one have to be more dominant and the other posed? "Do you talk with them? "Do you go with the flow? How do you address that?" You just go with the flow, you don't treat it any, I mean, it's no different, you know. They're still two parents, parents are parents, connection is connection, there's gonna be a fun parent and a parent that's not as fun. You do the fun things with the fun parent, you do the snuggly things with the (laughs), it doesn't matter, you know, same thing. Same, same approach. Yeah, same approach, yeah. A question from Roburn Holk, who asked, "Do you ever use a tripod or a monopod "with or without a remote, "especially in those low-light situations?" and says, "This class has been an amazing experience," Oh, good. But tripod ever in the home? No, mm-hmm (negative), I don't have stuff. I don't use stuff, I lose my ability to connect. You can, you can absolutely use one for the pullback shots if you really feel like you need to. I have used like counters and stuff like that (laughs), if I've really wanted to do that, you know? You don't have to, though, mm-hmm (negative), 'cause I'm always, I'm moving too much. I need to be over, I need to be behind, and if I had a monopod, I'll do that when I'm filming. Sometimes I'll do film throughout my lifestyle sessions, it's a whole 'nother thing, but I'll film during lifestyle so then when I make their little videos which I make for some of my clients, we'll have some film, and that's a time where it's really good to have the monopod, the single, right, but other than that I don't. This is from Demsey Millin. "Are there any times where there's tension "between the parents, a dad who wants to be playing Xbox "instead of taking pictures, for example? "How do you handle that when Mom may be getting upset "and the stress is heavy?" So, I think it has a lot of to do with personality. I have gone into a session where I had no idea but they were actually, they had just filed for divorce. I had no clue and I was like, "Something's off here." Like I could just feel the energy was really off, so what I did was I just, if you are very connected with your clients and if you are a person that is comfortable with, like, kind of like nudging Dad, like come on, we've only got 10 minutes. You can do it, just please just hang in there 10 more minutes. If you are a person that's comfortable doing that, that's how I kind of break the ice with people. It's your personality, you just have to read them. If dads really wanna play Xbox, I flat out say, "All right, man, we have 20 minutes. "We're gonna do the Dad shots, and then you can go back to playing Xbox," I kind of like play boss while I'm smiling, right, 'cause I'm not very a boss-ish person. I think having smiles and having positive energy, I think makes anybody kind of break out of that like crabby mood and just remind them that you're not gonna be there all day, okay? But you will if he keeps being crabby.