Children can be quirky. I remember taking my oldest son to have his one year portraits done and using a baseball mit and ball as props. He was so excited about that ball that he would raise and lower his hand repeatedly, pretending to throw the ball, and bouncing in place. All the pictures with that baseball are in motion (or of him trying to eat the ball)! Similarly, with my youngest, we had "naked baby" pictures done when he was about four months old. He would not leave the sheet covering his lower half in place for anything. It took five minutes to get him to leave it in place. I will forever remember those portrait sessions because my children's silliness was captured in photographs.
Last week we had a cute baby girl come into our studio who was photographed by Ryan. Teagun is a 9 month old little sweetie. In almost all of her shots she would roll her tongue and stick it out of her mouth, just slightly. It was her "signature" look and was absolutely adorable! Check out a few of her images...
Does your child have a quirk or a signature move they do regularly? So many times we want for our kids to have that "perfect" look for portraits, but also capturing those fun moments when they are being silly is a great memory maker. You will be sure to look back on those pictures and smile, remembering those special moments.
Every year we have dozens and dozens of beautiful and handsome entrants to the Star Kids Modeling Contest. Thankfully for us, Images Model and Talent Agency takes on themselves the hard job of selecting the winners. The overall winner of the Star Kids contest is then offered a full scholarship to Images children's classes to get some professional modeling and acting experience. Some of the winners from years past have gone on to pursue further performance venues. We caught up Alena, mom to 2009 winner Gianna, and she gave us a wonderful update on how her little winner was doing. So, here's what Gianna has been up to and how winner the Star Kids Contest affected some of those decisions!
The Star Kids Modeling Competition was a wonderful experience for Gianna. Of course, her favorite part of the entire experience was the photo shoot in the Portrait Shoppe Studio. From the dressing room, the costumes, and the personal attention provided by the staff, Gianna felt like a star even before being selected as the winner. The pictures turned out so beautifully, we had a hard time choosing a favorite to enter in the contest!
When we entered the Star Kids contest, our main priority was to great some great photographs capturing this magical youthful time in our child's life. However, winning the contest greatly improved Gianna's confidence. She went on to win Little Miss Madison County and represent the county at the state fair pageant. She also really enjoyed the classes at Images, especially memorizing scripts and practicing on the runway. Since completing the course at Images, Gianna has participated in several local fashion shows including pageant store Jack N Jill, and is also featured in the current ad campaign for Posh Tots Boutique in Richmond.
Whatever Gianna does, she likes to do it with an abundance of style and fanfare. Gianna is currently training with the Level 3 team at Excel gymnastics in Richmond, where her coach often refers to her as Little Miss America. She also just completed her 4th recital with Bluegrass Dance Center, where she studies tap, ballet, creative dance, and hip-hop. Next week, Gianna will graduate from Kindergarten and looks forward to a summer vacation filled with swimming, reading, play and (probably) mischief. While acting and modeling were never our original plan, Gianna will also attend theater camp to decide if she would like to further pursue acting.
Thanks so much Alena for providing us this awesome "snapshot" of Gianna's life and success! We wish her well.
Interested in getting your own child in to become a Star Kids winner? Make sure you check out the details of Star Kids in 2010 (below), then call the Portrait Shoppe at 859.277.6671 to make an appointment or even just ask questions, or go to the web and contact us that way.
Portrait Shoppe is proud to produce STAR KIDS: Lexington's Annual Children's Modeling Competition.
For 7 years the Portrait Shoppe has been running the Star Kids Modeling Competition, an informal portrait competition that benefits UK Children's Hospital. It is judged by the wonderfully talented people at Images Model Agency. It has always been a success, and this year is going to be no different! And for the first time in7 years, we've made some positive changes to the contest! Here's what you need to know about getting your child into Star Kids. When is Star Kids? Star Kids begins May 1st and run through most of the summer. Your portrait session needs to be done within this time period. *Suggestion: get it done early, because the end of July is crazy busy with people trying to cram it in!*
What are the age restriction? Anybody ages 0-12 is eligible to enter (that's your age as of May 1st, the beginning of the contest).
How is Star Kids judged? Star Kids is broken down into Age, Gender, and Style Categories, so there are lots of opportunities for your child to win! The age categories are: 0-11 months, 12-23 months, 2-3 years, 4-5 years, 6-7 years, 8-10 years, 11-12 years. Within each age category there are 2 boy winners and 2 girl winners: one Reality winner, and one Imagination winner. There are also two overall winners: one from 0-3 years, one from 4-12 years. All the judging is done by Images Model and Talent Agency - we (the photographers) get too attached to your children to make fair, objective judgments!)
How do I enter? All entries will be chosen from photographs taken at the Portrait Shoppe during the eligible months. All you have to do is make an appointment at the Portrait Shoppe. You may call the studio (859.277.6671) or you can make an appointment online (click here). But don't wait too long to make your appointment, or you might not be able to get a spot!
Does it cost anything to enter? The entrance fee to the Star Kids Modeling Competition is $99. This covers your session fee, your registration for Star Kids, the donation for UK Children's Hospital, and $50 towards whatever order you place.
What about scenes and outfits? For Star Kids, there are NO RESTRICTIONS! You can wear anything and use any of our scenes – but we have to have individual images, group shots won’t work. You may submit multiple children per family and/or a child into more than one category, but there will be an individual entrance fee for each.
How do you choose which image to use? We don’t – YOU do. We’ll help you of course, and give you suggestions, but the final decision is yours as to which image you want to submit. (See our post about How To Win A Modeling Competition for some suggestions on this.)
What does my child get if he/she wins? Every participant, winner or not, will get a 4×6 of the image they choose and a goodie bag full of prizes, coupons, and discounts at all participating businesses in Lexington. Typically those gift bags are worth somewhere in the vicinity of $100. The category winners will get more substantial prizes: gift certificates, dinners, etc. And the overall winners? Free registration and classes at Images Modeling Agency!
Why do Star Kids at all? Before it is anything else, Star Kids is a benefit for the UK Children's Hospital. The Star Kids Modeling Contest has been donating to them for 7 years, and has raised thousands of dollars! This year we're making an extra effort: we are doubling our donation from all previous years! In addition to that we are also donating a percent of the total sales from the contest to the UK Children's Hospital. So the 2010 donation is expected to be significantly larger than any we've made yet. But also (and not unimportantly), Star Kids is FUN! It's fun for you, for your child, for us...it's just a good time all around. So come and be part of the fun! We look forward to seeing your Star Kid and helping them to shine!
We had a fabulous Easter this year! All of your children were beautiful and so much fun! and even though we can't show you everything we photographed this season, we did want to show you a few highlights from our Lamb Portraits this past year!
We had a great time with this baby lamb - it was only a day old when we first got it! (The poor thing kept falling asleep, it was so new!) But the kids were AMAZING! We were so proud of everybody this year - you all were wonderful!
Thanks for making Easter 2010 a season to remember!
This past weekend we had a baby lamb as our guest - he was born on Wednesday, and we began shooting portraits on Thursday! Wow! What a special opportunity to be holding and photographing a newborn animal. He slept A LOT...babies usually do. But he was beautiful, and the kids loved him! We were completely booked with lamb portraits on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and this week has been full with selection and purchase appointments! Whew! We can't wait to show you some of the images, so make sure you check back here soon - the next post will be lamb portraits from 2010!
This was a real treat for us! A couple of years ago Savannah was a category winner in our Star Kids Modeling Contest. We hadn't seen her since then, but she just recently came back in! She's 8 now and has grown into a wonderful girl! AND...Savannah brought a friend with her to be photographed: her new kitten Megan!
Isn't she adorable?!? We were so thrilled to be able to photograph a cute girl and her new best friend. Check out a few of these great images of them together!
Thanks, Savannah, for coming in again and for bringing Megan with you! You two are precious together!
We look forward to seeing you again soon!
As you can see, Ashley and Shelly couldn't keep their hands off this cute little furball. They are true cat ladies: between them they've had more than 50 cats in their lifetimes!
So it's Saturday evening, your kid's all dressed in full Halloween garb and about to hit up all your neighbors for sweets and holiday goodness, and you want to commemorate this oh-so-adorable event with a few pictures. Here are 9 tips from the photographers at the Portrait Shoppe that may help you capture the mood and feeling of All Hallow's Eve in your portraits:
1. Know what your subject is
There will be no end to the things you can shoot at Halloween: from jack-o-lanterns to scary decorations to kids in costume. Figuring out exactly what it is you want to photograph will make your photographs much more pleasing to look at and easier to understand. Halloween is a time of color, emotion, and its full of all sorts of interesting subjects - take them one at a time , pick one to be your main focus in each shot, that way each one will stand out boldly.
2. Find interesting details to focus on
All good images have something in them that holds the attention of their viewers. Rather than taking all wide shots from 5 feet up, find the details that make the moment memorable. For example, instead of having the kid hold the pillow case of candy up by his head, have him reach in a grab as much as he can and hold it up by his face. That is a much more emotional and exciting photograph! Find the little details about her costume that really make it special and use those as your focal points. Everything you'll see on Halloween will be full of detail - like the point about picking your subject, don't try and focus on too much at once.
3. Fill the frame to increase drama
Zoom in! (But please, whatever you do, DON'T use the "digital zoom" on your camera!) Get in close and fill the frame with your subject. This helps to crowd out unwanted distractions in the background and it heightens the drama of the portrait. Whether its people or objects, getting in close will usually at a good punch to your shot.
4. Experiment with fresh camera angles
It's probably the case that the day after Halloween, photo sharing websites will be filled with images of pumpkins and ghosts with winter coats on that all look very much the same. Make your images stand out by finding fresh angles to shoot from. Try getting super low or super high and see what difference it makes. And if you really feel bold, angle your camera a little bit. The key is to experiment; some angles will be absolutely terrible, some will be a breath of fresh air - play around and see what you like.
5. Pay attention to the background and surroundings
A great picture of your child in costume can be totally ruined by the TV on in the background, or the dishes in the sink peaking out from behind her head. Remember, even though you may only be focused on how cute she may look, your camera is picking up everything in its field of view. Move your subjects in front of a simple background, or one that doesn't have a lot of distractions in it. If you can, remove everything from the scene that doesn't belong in the "period" of the costume: for example, there were no wristwatches in the medieval period, nor were there bookshelves in neverland. One other thing to consider in your surroundings and background is color - something too similar to the costume may blend in to your subjects, but something too different may clash. A little attention to these things ahead of time will result in images that really pop.
6. Turn off your flash (if you can)
No holiday is more dramatic, edgy, and dark than Halloween. Photographing your little ghouls under bright lights or the flash of your camera will severely dampen the effect of this mood that characterizes the holiday. If you can, photograph them in natural light - sunset lighting is AMAZING for these pictures! Make use of interesting light, such as candles, to add a really cool mood to your pictures. Just remember to tell your subjects to keep still while you get the shot!
For those who have cameras with the capability: 1) increase your ISO - the larger your number the more sensitive your image sensor is to light and the darker conditions you can shoot in without having to slow down shutter speed. 2) slow down shutter speed – choosing a longer shutter speed lets more light into your camera. On the downside you’ll see any movement in your shots blur (which might add to the spookiness of the image but could also ruin it). Consider using a tripod if you lengthen your shutter speed. 3) use a larger Aperture – this widens the hole in your lens and lets more available light in. It will also lessen the depth of field in your shots.
7. Jack-0-lanterns
A special note about photographing Jack-o-lanterns: it is particularly tricky to get the full effect of the eerie glowing inside. Instead of just the one candle you keep in there normally, it's probably a good idea to use 2 or 3 for added light. Then set your camera down on a tripod or something sturdy (table, chair, etc.). Don't forget to keep your flash off!
8. All about the attitude
"Hey, look here and smile!" Come on, how many superheroes want to pose like a little kid? Do you really think that a witch is going to try and look pretty for you? This may be your kid's one big chance in the year to bring out their inner actor - let them perform! Ask them to go overboard with attitude...trust me, you're kid knows how to ham it up! Encourage this by addressing them and interacting with them as though they really were Spiderman, or Peter Pan, or Aurora the princess. Kids LOVE this stuff - let them be completely enveloped by their character, and make sure your shots capture the energy they give!
9. Tell the story
Finally, don't just take random photos throughout the night - chronolog the event through your images. Take the before shots of the kids getting into costume; take the after shots of the kid asleep at the Halloween party. Try to get some candid moments of the trick-or-treating and please don't forget to catch the excitement in their faces when they get their first piece of Halloween candy! Photograph the moments, not just the stuff - your images will stand out from the crowd!
THIS JUST IN: One of the pirates, a dangerous looking bloke who, as best we can tell, is called "The Dread Pirate Ryan," seems to have recently recruited a first-mate. This new buckaneer looks to be even more dread than Ryan himself. Our advice: stay in your house! Lock your doors! If these pirates continue their rampage at the Portrait Shoppe there's no telling what could become of all our children!
As a famous king of England once said in a movie, "Run Away! RUN AWAY!"
I don't know what's worse - the fact that there are pirates running amok in Lexington, or that they're taking photos of one another!
Alright, so the other a client of ours came in to look at her daughter's portraits that we had taken about a week before. She arrived with all 3 girls in tow (all three of whom have been lovely subjects at the Portrait Shoppe before). Her oldest, Erika, just began kindergaten this fall and I haven't seen her since her birthday shoot back in the spring. Well, she comes in with a loose tooth - one of the front ones, too. So I make the bad joke of knocking it out for her. Well, lo and behold, as I pretend to knock her tooth out (I didn't touch her, I SWEAR - you can ask her mom), Erika puts her hand to her mouth and spits out...her TOOTH! Right in front of us! Plenty of kids have come in with loose or missing teeth before, but this was our very first time that a tooth was lost here in the Portrait Shoppe!
[caption id="attachment_111" align="aligncenter" width="374" caption="Erika with her newly missing tooth (it's in the envelope)"][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_112" align="aligncenter" width="302" caption="Erika and her sister Madelyn"][/caption]
Here's the tooth itself...yeah, the image is blurry...and it was taken by me: a photographer! How embarrassing ;-)
Way to go Erika! I hope the tooth fairy was good to you! What's her going rate now, $1? $2? $5? I got a quarter when my teeth fell out - what did you use to get?
We had an AWESOME time this past Easter! The kids all had such a great time playing with the bunnies and the lamb this year, and they all looked super-cute!
Every session was special, each child brought something unique and wonderful to the images. You can see from the few we have here that they were all so different, and so special.
Our Lamb was named Joey (we're not sure how we picked Joey, but it worked) - he was only 1 week old during the portraits! What a trooper - he lasted through every single portrait session (and the kids thought they had a hard time!). Normally we get 2 lambs, but because Easter was a little later this year, the lambing season was almost over and we were lucky to get this little guy. We were definitely sad to see him go after that weekend.
We had two bunnies this year also. Their names were Siegfried (Ziggy) and Smidge. Smidge was appropriately named because he was only a dwarf. Once during a session with him, one of our clients asked, "he's not going to get much bigger, is he?" And Shelly responded, "maybe just a smidge." Thus, the birth of the name Smidge - most of the time he rode around in the pocket of Shelly's sweatshirt! We got to enjoy them for a couple of weeks. All the kids loved them too!
The kids were amazing this year - they were well behaved, fun, energetic...just overall it was a great group of little people!
Thank you so much for making this a spectacular Easter! We would love to see you all back again next season!
We were given a special treat this particular Easter - Brian's mom Erin took a picture of the photographers with Joey the lamb! This is a picture of Brian (isn't he just adorable?!), his mom Erin, Shelly and Ryan (the two Portrait Shoppe Photographers), and Joey the star of the weekend! Thanks Brian and Erin for this cool gift!
5. Pay attention to the background and surroundings
Thanks Ladies! We had a GREAT time, and your portraits are 
[/caption]
[/caption]
[/caption]
Posts
