Kenneth Robert Photography Blog

To be honest with you, I don’t think of myself as a great child photographer. Don’t get me wrong, I do a good job getting the shot, but while I have 5 kids, I just don’t seem to capture them the way I would like. We are after all, our own worst critics.

That being said, my clients are happy and that’s always my goal.

When I photograph kids or babies I will use backdrops or props, but prefer getting the shot of the child interacting with the world around him or her. Even when a backdrop is used, I don’t want the kid to just sit there and be a statue. They move, ALLOT. Let them! Your pictures will be better if you don’t try to restrain them, and just let them be.

Just remember a few VERY important rules when shooting kids. First, you need good light. Then you need to use fast shutter speeds, because no one wants a blurry kid. If you think kids are fast, well… they are. These suckers move super fast. So remember a simple mantra, fast subject, fast shutter.

This photo was done for my sister-in -law’s family. My nephew Mac is the most active kid I have ever seen. I think he sleeps while running around.

This blog post uses my daughter Sydney as my subject, but the post is not about her. This is about using available light to your advantage to get a great picture.

Have you  ever wondered why professional photographers use those big white things, and reflectors when using flash? It’s to bring the light to your subject in a flattering, soft and natural looking way. There’s nothing worse than bad lighting to make a good picture look like crap.

While you can’t always control the location of your subject, you can control the way they stand in relation to you and the sun. In the case of this photo, the morning sun was pouring in under our back patio. The nice thing about indirect light is it’s diffused, soft, flattering. As the sun poured into the kitchen, I brought Sydney to the french door and had her turn slightly into the light. Not fully, or she’d have no shadows at all on her face (more on that in another post). If you look carefully at her eyes, you’ll see what’s called catchlight. The reflection of the french doors is clearly visible.

When you make a portrait of someone, always focus on the eye nearest the lens. You will have a visually more appealing image, and  if the eyes are sharp, no one will notice that the pearl earring isn’t. Ha, made you look!

When I shoot an event, wedding, charitable, sports, I am always looking for the sequence. I want to show a start, a middle and an end. When Megan & Matt came back down aisle as husband and wife, I wanted to capture the excitement of the moment, the looks on their faces, the joy.

As a photographer, it’s your job to know details in advance. You need to know if people are going to be tossing flowers, or if they are exiting the venue with a sparkler send off. Those details matter, especially to them.

This is one of those sequences that I am proud of. Megan & Matt not only have this sequence in their wedding album, but hung on a wall in their home.

I really love everything this sequence captures.

Sometimes you just have to be a part of the moment to capture the moment. No I wasn’t hoisted up in a chair to capture this traditional Jewish wedding celebration, but I placed myself where I would be pretty darn close to the couple’s altitude in order to get the perspective they have. I got up on stage, right in front of the live band and shot away.

The result, an image that makes you feel like you were up on the chairs with them.

Today’s post is all about showing love in a portrait. Most think Samantha and Robbie are right out of a magazine, well they’re not. Really! They were a couple whose wedding I shot several years ago,  and this image is one that I think really shows their love, the tenderness of the moment and emotion. I have had many people comment on this shot over the years, they all say the same thing in different ways. That’s what love looks like.

What do you think?