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young boy in elementary school with other students sitting with books on their desks in a classroom

How I Mastered Patience Photographing Kids

Photographing kids isn’t just a job for me, it is what launched my career as a commercial photographer! Through my work over the years, I mastered patience photographing kids. Back in 1996, when I opened my first studio in central Florida, I had the incredible opportunity to work with book publishers like Harcourt-Brace and Scholastic Book Fairs. For many years, kids made up 80% of my daily photography work. With limited budgets and a high volume of shoots, we often worked with average kids who had no modeling experience. This quickly taught me the invaluable lessons of patience and effective communication with children. I learned that with younger kids, I sometimes needed to explain things in incredibly simple, elementary terms for them to grasp what I needed them to do.

The Magic of Photographing Children

Since moving to Nashville in 2001, the photography market has been quite different from Orlando, and I haven’t had as many opportunities to photograph children. I truly miss it! Kids always make me laugh, and I look forward to the chance to test my patience and skills with them again.

There’s something uniquely beautiful about photographing children. Their flawless skin glows in photographs. One fascinating observation I’ve made is the size of their eyes in proportion to their faces compared to adults. This unique feature, when captured correctly, can make their photographs uniquely stunning. Plus, youth is fleeting, and preserving that innocent stage in a timeless photograph is incredibly important.

How Kids Shaped My Approach to Photography

Working with kids is both challenging and incredibly rewarding. There’s a delicate balance to getting them to cooperate in front of the camera. You need to win them over from the start, or you’ll quickly lose their attention, especially depending on their age. Photographing children over the years taught me immense patience, a skill that has profoundly carried over into every other aspect of my photography work.

Ready to Capture Your Vision?

As Nashville continues to grow, now’s the perfect time to bring your visual projects to life! If you’ve got a corporate project, need striking personal photos, or have any other photographic needs, don’t hesitate to reach out by email or phone. I’m excited to hear from you and discuss how we can create something incredible together.

Keep an eye out—I’ll be sharing some fresh new images with you soon!

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