One gorgeous June weekend! This is a story of Tommy, a 3 year old boy. I have seen and photographed Tommy since he was 6 months old. This spring we decided to go to Fort Whyte Alive for a family session.
Tommy loves nature and like most 3 year olds he is curious, full of energy and never stops looking- whether it is a stick, leaves, geese, pine cone or baby birds. We picked the time around 3pm so the sun is directly not on top of our head.
Tips for photographers:
- This is important for taking portrait shots, especially if you want to avoid racoon eyes!
- Also sun light at noon is pale yellow, almost melts any dynamism of color array. Late noon sun brings a little bit of orange hue and works perfectly with any skin tone.
Fort Whyte Alive has abundant flora and fauna. A flock of geese attracted Tommy’s attention right away. We followed the geese and ended up on the board walk. Explorer Tommy was excitedly peeking through the board into the shallow marsh following the little fishies and was star struck after seeing a baby turtle basking under the sun.
Tips for photographers:
- For kids in motion, I like to keep my camera ready all the time because you never want to miss a cute and fast gone moment. I like to use a lens with 24-70mm zoom to have the flexibility to shoot closeups or from a distance if needed. On the boardwalk Tommy saw a goose up close and strangely enough the bird was not bothered by Tommy looking in his eyes couple of feet away. Having a zoom lens was helpful indeed. I kept some distance to not to scare the bird and let Tommy do his exploring!
Mulched path within the trees are perfect for little kids to walk and easy on the photographer from tripping hazard. Tommy started looking for sticks and gotinto collecting pine cone. Strangely enough he would pick one at a time and come and give it to me.
Tips for photographers:
- If you want to get an interesting shot using a 24-70mm lens and you have a subject in motion. Let the subject come running at you and continue to click pictures with the shutter pressed. The closer the subject gets zoom out the lens without physically moving. The wide lens effect looks amazing when the subject is really close within a couple of feet.
- I have a canon DSLR and like to keep the feature Al Servo on to continuously keep the subject in focus. This is helpful not just for wildlife photography but also kids in motion.
Tommy loved throwing rocks in the water. Explored the little tipi hut. In the meantime he would come and give little kisses to his mommy. At the end of the day, Tommy was tired from all the walking and running around, he rested on his stroller and was ready to go home.
He gave a dazzling smile and said thank you aunty!!!
The best part of being a photographer is when you make the connection with your subject no matter what age group - it truly makes a memorable event!
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