When Pinterest Ideas Turn Into Pinterest Fails

….and why that’s never a bad thing!

I’ve lost count how many times I’ve worked with a client on getting something either one of us saw on Pinterest and wanted to recreate. That’s what it’s for, after all. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried those Cookie Monster cupcakes, or the French toast cooking in a crockpot all night, or whatever intriguing little hack that caught your eye, but it’s wildly and hilariously known that not all Pinterest ideas are a success. Google “pinterest fails” if you haven’t yet – you’ll die laughing.

I’m a “roll with the punches” kind of person when doing sessions with younger children. Half the time, kids are going to be kids, and mom gets secretly disappointed when junior only cooperates for the first ten minutes of the family session and we don’t make it down the mental checklist of super cool poses we had in mind. Usually I just roll with it because the next phase for a child is usually “meltdown” and that’s worse than them being uncooperative. This is when I reassure everyone that candids are also keepers, so let’s make this about capturing everyone together as if there were no camera and just let moments create themselves naturally.

Noah being oh-so perfectly Noah…

Some people might say that nothing beats a perfect family photo, but I might have to disagree. Is an overly-posed photo on some background with everyone wearing matching shirts most representative of your family, especially with children? Probably not. Is that a bad thing? NO! When I first started photography, it was during the big film-to-digital crossover. The film photography world was anti-wasteful, where EVERYTHING was thought out and planned, and forgive me, but also kind of trite and sterile. Nothing against film (I still shoot with it), but now that we’re in a digital age, it’s all about capturing the BEST moments possible. If you only got one shot out of 64 and it’s a money shot, then excellent! Some of the best shots of children I’ve captured were definitely not posed or planned.

Nemo, not interested in sitting still for his first-year photos, but totally killing it at candids!

This shot above, with the infant and the dogs, again, totally not planned. We laid him down to get him ready for some photos, and up came the pups, super protective and snuggly, and then this just happened, out of nowhere. The moment just perfectly created itself. Had I called the dogs up and we tried to get them to do this, it definitely would not have happened. Patience is key, and sometimes you have to trust the little ones to lead the way….
He held up this Uno card all on his own. Out of probably 200+ w/ the cards, this is the money shot.
While I’m HUGE on candids, that’s not to say I’m not into posing. Annie Leibovitz and Mark Seliger, never stop doing what you’re doing! I really like the relaxed look with poses and want it to feel like my subjects didn’t need much direction. You can just TELL when a pose isn’t working, whether you’re snapping the photo or in it. As a concert photographer for over ten years, I’m embracing this digital age, where traditional styles have taken a backseat to the “artfully photojournalistic” look that you see a lot of in modern weddings today.
See his little smile?!

 

Every photographer has their own way of posing their subjects. I usually prefer to suggest a pose I’d like to try with a client after imagining it in my head, place them where lighting is good, and slowly ease them into it, again, letting everything fall into place. A lot of these photos you’re seeing weren’t “Step 1: Do this. Step 2: Do that.”

If you’re doing a session with babies and small children, remember that they’re probably only going to give you limited time to get the “face the camera and smile” shots. You may even have to just give in and sit in the sand or the grass with them, at their level, so they feel more “involved” rather than instructed. If you walk away feeling like you didn’t quite get the shots you wanted, there’s a good chance there are some great candids in the batch. If you have a really good photographer, they probably got some!

 

Poor Mom rolled in fresh dog poop in the grass after this…

At times, Pinterest-inspired images do happen successfully, and they are treasured just as much as the surprise candid captures where every client so far has said “I can’t believe you got this many! I thought we had nothing! There are so many good ones in here!”

Sleeping infants are just TOO easy!

Moral of this whole story is, don’t fret if you didn’t quite get the image you hoped for. At the end of the day, the best photos of your family will always be the ones where they were simply being themselves…in good lighting. 😉

 

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