Fine Art Child Photography

Good afternoon all!

Its been a while since I've blogged... again! I'm hoping thats all about to change as I now have a new blog host which runs through my website therefore making it easier to blog as I go as everything is in one place!

The inspiration for todays post comes off the back of my updating my website with new up to date information & images so I thought now is as good a time as any to tell you all....

I'm changing the way I shoot children!

This change has come from inspiration from photographers the world over & the desire to connect more with the kids that come for a session with me. I want to capture their personalities. Not just the smile they give for a photo but them, as their parents see them as their friends see them.

I've already started shooting this way with those close to me, my girls in particular. Although they have a parent that is a photographer they now have Photographers Child Syndrome (any photographer with children will tell you about this & the struggles we have!) and either give me that false, incredibly fake 'oh lets smile for mum quick so she'll leave us' smile that they have perfected so well or the other end of  PCS (Photographers Child Syndrome) whereby they are total nightmares to photograph & refuse point blank!

As you can imagine both were driving me crazy so when up the studio the other month practising some new shooting techniques I talked the girls into posing for me but this time with a difference if you will, I shot them separately as I wanted more images if Leah at this point than Freya as its becoming increasingly hard to get pictures of Leah as she's either at school or off on a sleepover the little socialite she is or refusing to let me take pictures of her. So this day I had out my fan (I was practising blowing flowing fabric for a maternity session) and a few scarves & newborn wraps when I decided to do something I'd never done & used one of the newborn wraps to create a top for Leah & blew her hair with the fan creating an amazing effect which on showing her the back of the camera she loved which led to her becoming more comfortable than she had in a long time & relaxing & just having fun.

Here are a few of her wearing the wrap & headscarf...

As you can see from the progression of these images Leah became more confident & even done some dancing ones....

As all parents that are photographers do we tend to push it as far as we can when our kids are in the mood so I then talked Leah into letting me take some shot of her with the flowing fabric, this was her favourite one from the few we took...

Here are a couple of other images I've taken recently with my new ethos in mind...

To book your Fine Art Child Photography session

contactme@ashleighsheaphotography.co.uk for a consultation.