Lessons

Lesson Info

Consultation with Parents

nine kids are you from a big family no no no how many are you like you're one of I'm one of two one of two and I'm one of three one ofthree I'm one of one so I seriously I have no idea what would be like to have that many siblings it's just chaos for you all the time yeah a little bit yeah that's awesome though I mean and they end up like taking care of each other as they d'oh d'oh we have they're all very close in age they are so they've kind of sort of teamed tap each other out so all right so normally we know if we're sitting in a consultation prior to having a session we'd be talking about clothing you guys look great all the kids aaron like grays and yellows and so that works beautifully you know I normally tell families to try to keep a color palette that's neutral great now is beautiful to keep it simple and low goes no big patterns especially with a group as large as yours patterns and too many different things going on really distract from all the faces in a portrait so you al...

ready ahead of the game by just having them dressed properly um all right so tell me a little bit about each of your kids so it lets start with tatyana she's seventeen tatiana loves fashion she's not into sports so loves clothes makeup hair and she's usually dolling up all the little girls yeah she said to me that she does modelling a little bit yeah so is she like picky about her fashion like you feel like into designer stuff they were designer oh gosh I'm not sure I have it yeah yeah fashion and makeup well she seventeen to share boyfriend no good saying ok so and isaias fifteen yes and he's a gymnast this that's awesome you know you're always here girls you know gymnasts and I always love watching the olympics and seeing like the male gymnast is he like is he awesome it is yeah yes and hopefully that will take him to school so you know scholarship yeah so where does he practice where does he train he's part of a g a young men's team okay so okay and what's his what's his best he says his best is the vault a lot on dh he likes thie parallel bars I think in the high bar as well yeah but he tries that they have to do all of them actually write yeah but usually kids will have like a favorite yeah I would say his vote and I think it's his favorite because that's when he does the best right yeah as that crazy ryan up yeah that's one of my favorite sports watch and the olympics mean they're some of the most athletic how many hours a day does he have to train I think what three three to four probably four days a week wow yeah it's it's a big commitment so we'll do a handstand for me he will you know if you'd like to write andreas is thirteen okay and tell me uh you know he's he likes sports as well but he doesn't do it competitively okay I think he's kind of a tip typical boy he he likes to play with some of the video games and so forth we try to limit that of course he's got a good group of friends that he likes to hang out with at school and so forth but he's isaiah's more of the type of kid who likes to be on stage hey hey is the one you know he likes to kind of be out in front andreas is pretty much the opposite he is a very quiet very reserved introverted young man yeah it likes to kind of live in the shadows I think and and he's very comfortable with that okay yeah so I kind of like hide on me way to draw him out yeah just like the kid that like hides behind an older siblings like please don't notice it's difficult because he's like almost six foot tall now and he's a he's a really tall kid so it's hard for him to hide oh yeah all right well have fun with him and gabby okay she's cute I let mother talking way call her mighty mouse she's you know people call me that to do they swear girls in my gym I like my house I'm telling you that so we have that common she's a feisty spunky athletic and she is kind of uh I'd say tomboy but a girlie tomboy so yeah she told me tomboy yash likes plays football and all that kind of stuff so she was always trying to prove herself so she's the competitive one oh yeah because she's twelve yes yeah okay so who is she competitive with brothers and sisters everybody she's like well first of all she's classic middle child she's like literally right in the middle so yeah of course you can be a little competitive you know what you usually say middle child is like you know the middle of three like I'm the middle of nine it's like totally and they could do like like andres could do like I'm middle also but I'm like one higher up middle and you like ok so jordana um she's very much foofie girlie no sports I um loves anything femine and she's always with our oldest she wants to be doing here make up ok so there are clothes yeah yeah see I don't want to know because they'll probably like really love doing a portrait together right um she will yeah tatyana so much yeah sure don't love that okay good okay yeah and it must be interesting watching all the different relationships between them develop and who's more attached to who and it they're fascinating dynamics a cz we added on and see who would wantto relate to who but I think the first three are probably the closest and I mean not just in aged but they seem to have really jelled the most together right yeah and then the other ones were tryingto fit in there somewhere right okay so she sold her nana is early favorite movie any other barbie movies party yeah yeah this is like the ones that one the one thing I don't like pay attention to his barbie stuff it's e I know all the other movies and like barbie cast your youngest like you're her favorite princess and she need like some barbie princeton like honey I'm talking like disney princesses like I don't know army princesses yeah they keep they keep making new and so they're they're on top of it now princesses are a big thing alright and the cia she's a yet she lives in her own kind of fairy world and he is always singing she's very theatrical we always want to live in her world dancing very talkative very engaging did you say very talkative doesn't know yeah doesn't know personal schaefer well she the one who has the broken arm yes yeah okay that's one the hot pink doesn't quite go with all the yellow right on her scooter she said she did that so does she do like dance class and um not anymore okay because she was a little too much for the teacher so why do you want to stretch you just want to get straight to dancing she was too much for the teacher well sorry ma'am here can't dance here anymore she's just too much for me is that what happens now it was a ballet class and every time we would go yeah she would fight the teacher about stretching and doing the things she just wanted to get up and do this stuff so she just needed let us know that that's part of ballet if they're not going to do that maybe find another class wanted to do like belly when I was little and then after I found out they had to get up early on saturday morning and miss cartoons that without it was too early for me yeah I don't think they really want to go through the pain and the actual you know training of it they just want oh flutter around the room yeah they don't want to go through the practice party true and taso he's all boy he's all boy swords soldiers hag in tirades yeah anything manly anything manley manley does he play he's only five but does he do any sports yet um he tried baseball last year but he didn't really stick with it I think he got bored kind of quickly so any like family favorite teams like football team you know I think but it's usually just amongst the boys yeah but usually arizona carney team cardinals diamondbacks because right now they do but we're loyal fans yeah yeah so good because giants I'm all giants and yankees because they said they were born there right I know a lot of people just tune write the hell out I'm sorry really sorry sorry you my manager man what can I tell you so yeah because a lot of times you weaken like banter about that like who's your team cardinals you and then they all defensive well we could talk about the yankees to I know I had a terrible year what cheaters ankle like dude come on he's getting old that's what the problem is not young anymore I know but it's better than being a cubs fan sorry I say this because my husband's a cubs fan let me just all sum this up there's my household we have two dogs one his name jeter one's name really that's great it's pumps up my house right there threw away so anyway all right so all boy dragons pirates and then noodles okay can I just eat her holy mackerel that kid is like she's like she's all over the place yeah and she's in charge yes she's oh she's large and in charge I mean she's little but she's like she teo yeah come over here I wanna show you something and then she's like don't step on there that's broken I'm like ok yeah she's gonna be a lot of fun what's so she is just full of energy she was the greatest hair ever saw what what is she a new bar atlantis and says yeah she had a barney princess right yeah I'm out to lunch on the barbie princesses I have some homework to do and then every six months every six months just happy yeah I know yesterday said like six months is probably one of my favorite sweet yeah she has a great disposition to she's smiling yeah that's awesome okay so just to give you a little heads up on what we're going to do today um from let's say a client photographer standpoint well obviously gonna photograph your family right so um I like to do is many different combinations as possible so I'll photograph each of the kids by themselves I'll do you know maybe all the little ones together all the older I mean I we're going to do a thousand different combinations today um if we were sitting and this was like you coming to me at my studio I'd be asking you what's important to you what you know what is the most important part of this portrait we're in your home where you gonna put this thinking about a large portrait for your home thing about gifts for family like got kind of thing so if you were to think in terms of like a portrait where you put it in your home where would it where would it go company over the mantel yeah we don't really have ah full family photograph you never really have well we've had a lot of family photographs but I've always been out of them I've never been in them so I'm looking forward to actually being in a family photograph that's that's awesome for dad right because we're talking yesterday about you a lot of times dad is like man I've been roped into this I can ask your older boys like excited me here overjoyed and a questions yesterday wass you know how do you handle like kind of moody you know teenage boys who are like totally not into this and so we showed you know some examples have handle out today and just and this is why I like to know this information so I can talk to him okay so um you know we're gonna go with gymnastics your competitive team you know who's your coach like I can just at least guy tio yeah and so this way each one of them feels special and normally what I do is I'll start with each of the children alone so this way they have their moment they feel special and I'll start with the most outgoing so they can kind of show the other one's like okay this is not so bad this this way by the time we get to andreas he might like he'll be like okay isn't that bad you know and I will handle him in a slightly different way so no photograph you with all the girls you boys you with all the girls you and due to the fact that we're live on there you know internet which is a little frightening to me with nine children no idea what's gonna happen neither do it this is so crazy fun another thing that we're going to do more for the viewers is have three studio members do some posing with you guys and they're gonna do I minister hello okay pretend we're a family of five and it's our parents we have three younger children how we're going to set that up so we're actually gonna use you in combinations of all different size family but in the day we will get a full family portrait him so okay if all the kids survive yeah kids look it means way talked about we talked yesterday a lot about the developmental stages of children and we know that like noodles her attention spans gonna be about three to four minutes and she's gonna be off in a different direction so we'll get to work with her a little bit al center away give her a break because she's not gonna want to stay there it's also same thing he's not gonna want to sit your older kids will probably work most with them because they'll be fine all day they won't mind um it's the little ones that are going to like you want to go here I want to go there and so by the time and they comes we'll rally everybody up again together and get it all back so now how do you feel about being photographed I hate being photographed are you saying that honestly oh yeah and you volunteered for this that's all well no I thought it was for the kids I thought this was gonna be like kids thing oh so you don't realize you're going to be a full part of that till later on I volunteered my children and now I got sucked in that's perfect though so talk to me about why you don't like being photographed I don't know I take pictures too so I prefer to be on the other side of that hammer I'm just not comfortable I don't unless someone's completely opposing me and and plus having kids it's just like you're never happy with the way you look anymore okay you know so what is it about what generally do not like about the way you look andi so I need you to be honest because I'll fix what you don't like ok yeah like you know the typical girl stuff right leg's tummy right arm's all that so I'll tell you what I tell most my clients I will use your children to hide all the parts of you that you are not happy about because you had nine children yes so you'll see my eyes if okay that's what we want yeah like your little ones will sit on your laugh you know the way pose you you know my job is take off ten pounds in ten years okay see that sounds real good already right so um and how about you how do you feel about being photographed I'm fine sweet I'm here because of her see that right if she's happy I'm happy that you got it true you have a great attitude though a lot of dads are like come on you know like really right now we're spending on listen it's one thing to say is this portrait sessions going take about an hour and a half to honey we're gonna be posing all day you guys are awesome sort so um what do you want to see most out of this experience I just excited to have like an actual a nice group photo photo uh awesome so we have to work around um evie's nap because you wanted me to be happy um we'll do some stuff of her alone to um you have so four and six we're missing a two year old in here way to final finale she is final nine rounding off nine three sets of three yeah yeah yeah I like not number is good yeah so what's it like when you go to like an amusement park we're kind of the show yeah people look at us are they looking at you like oh sweeter like oh I'm glad that's not me I like well they actually say that you know really they dio we'll see things we've noticed that people become very bold even in public when we're about whether we're at a mall or a zoo are traveling or whatever the case may be you get all sorts of comments right don't really hold back it's okay we're used to it yeah no it was great it was awesome and like seriously I'm from huge italian family but I'm an only child so I totally appreciate that but I have no idea what it is to grow up with brothers and sisters so I think it's kind of the coolest thing so I'm excited teo do this today um yeah then they're all different and that that noodles oh I could just hear so do you have a favorite shot I'm just kidding you know what you could ask you to the kids and they'll tell you the same answer don't they know who it could be a test you're okay you know what hola torturing the makeup artist ok and who's who's the fun parent you get away with everything no no I don't think so I mean I'm I think I do a good job parenting too but I think because I'm not home is much and then when I do come home I can be a little bit more lighthearted and and play full of things like that but I mean we co parent pretty well I think there's always one good cop bad cop you know always like if you're in trouble who are you most afraid of me yeah and I'd like to ask him that too so I'll just have fun with them and like I said there'll be a million different scenarios today well maybe not a million but um we'll be quite a few different scenarios you'll be a family's three we'll be a family five would be a family of eleven you know well sometimes just be kids sometimes kids with you so I mean it makes it up I'm gonna test them so we'll be in one location I'll be like okay so you know christine you're gonna pose victoria with three of her children here are the three what are we going to do and then so it'll be a lot of fun so just relax have a good time making a memory now it's gonna be really expensive when we're done because you have so many kids there so there are no like your portrait gonna be really expensive you know because we need a sixteen by twenty of each child I mean why wouldn't you and then yeah alright alright but blasting on the way maybe more a child needs an individual torture with their parents for their rooms so they feel special and unique you know looked out yeah right and that's you know that's one of things that relate to do is both of you with each child alone so that that they have that moment of just me and my parents will screw yeah za great way and you know feel comfortable on special yeah usually during the consultation I'm kind of also engaging my client and okay where are we gonna put this what are we going to do with it do you want to do an album and knew we have samples that we normally show um and how how big is the mantle probably six feet oh that's great we can get like a nine hundred by four hundred foot photo we think think ridiculous but I'm usually I always like to talk about this safe during pre consultation is if you haven't thought of a place look around the house and think about where you might want to put portrait's and you know maybe make a list of people who would want to give gifts to and say we're doing this for the holidays do you want to do gifts for christmas cards and family stuff and so um but yeah do you have any questions for me I don't see you good luck wait okay that sums it up way have questions about this consultation part from any people in our audience we have a lot of um curiosity actually about your family everyone everyone just loves you already deemed one two three says these guys are awesome awesome on and just acknowledging your vulnerability tio come on and bring your family and come in and just kind of open up your life teo tv hey it's everyone watching vulnerabilities a good word for groups filled you just gotta jump in there you know so sometimes I'll jump in your family portrait like I'm all right I got a little blue grey going out we're yeah um but yeah he's gonna be so much fun it's gonna be a really good time what do you think it's going to be so um mary decker is asking do you have a trick on how you remember all these little details of the family members while on the shoot I do normally you know it kind of like just study it before I go you know this is a lot to remember I'm probably gonna have this piece of paper in my pocket and be pulling it out doing my little cheat cheat but normally if it's like you know two three even four kids it's a little bit easier for me to remember but this is gonna be a little mostly because one you have ah really incredible group of names that you know are not common names to remember so um I mean noodles is easy and evie is easy but like you know amnesia is not a name I'm used to saying it's not my normal vocabulary so I want to keep it here so don't mispronounce anyone's name and I always like to call everyone by their name as much as possible because it does create that sense of relationship and trust and kids always really amazed when you know their names me you know when we used to do weddings with big bridal parties we would have all the names of people in the bridal party including the kid's parents and I would study them so by the time I got the wedding like oh you must be victoria you must be timothy and then oh you know I'd see like you know the little kid oh you must be jenny and you she knows my name you know so that's really important to be able to address people by their names and but for the most part working with family portrait ce we do we know everybody's name weddings are a little bit different and um eleven people is a lot to remember and then my students and you know so anyway but yeah um today I will have a cheat sheet with me um and the more I get to know them the more I talk to them and as I photograph each one of them and you know we asked him about themselves and it'll help me remember them more so yeah we have a technical question about lenses so you mentioned that you often use your eighty five one two s o with larger family is like like this family would you up your aperture absolutely do that yeah okay let's shoot a family of eleven at one point to can you say like colossal failed yeah obviously the more depth that I have in the portrait as faras the depth of the subjects I'm gonna adjust my aperture accordingly I probably would not use the eighty five for the whole group um I probably stick more with the seventy two two hundred and uh probably go to like five six you know depending on how far enough stacked everyone so like the other family group that we saw that was at three I mean you could see they're all pretty close together that example we showed earlier with the little kids in the front and so and having people lean over remember I'm always thinking about getting all the noses on the same piece of glass so if that means back row lean in a little bit more I know that everyone's gonna be in focus