Children photography at home Sessions

I thought I'd share with you a handful of photos from around the holidays just gone. This is becuase I realised how closely they resemble a typical children/family photography at home session I do with families in my work.

How does it work?:
I do the shoot over two hours which gives the children time to get used to me. As they go about their usual routine I simply photograph them. I become your child's very own paparazzi! We use different areas of the house and each brings something different to the photos - children often want to show off their own bedrooms and toys which make lovely colourful photos.

Then we all head out to a nearby park or green, natural area and again I photograph what happens there. Finally when we get back I sometimes keep the camera rolling as they have a something to eat becuase at this point the kids are really relaxed and sometimes come some real gems of photos, and finally I head off.

What Happens After:
After your shoot I edit the photos and depending on the package parents have chosen they can get up to 30 beautiful images included and on top of this up to two professional art prints of their favourite photos. It's a pretty good deal.

So if a family shoot at home sounds like something you fancy giving a go this year why not give me a call to set it up ....and if you're St Neots based in Cambridgeshire you can get a taster session on Mothers day morning for a mini price.

www.sammisparke.com

Contact me today

12 days of Christmas photography tips. Day seven, tip seven: The Traditional Family Portrait Part 3. Putting the fun into family photography.

The Traditional Family Portrait Part 3. Putting the fun into family photography.

So far I've covered formal family portraiture arrangements and ways of how to photograph children which yield the most aesthetic results.  For me however there is nothing more perfect than a family photo where true smiles and real laughter are present.

True laughter; the crinkly eyed, wide mouth, teeth on show kind is something that can't be faked. So essentially the only way to make sure you're ready when it happens is to be alert and ready with your camera for these moments and to have an idea of what makes different people laugh or smile.

This shot of baby Gaby is from an old  summer shoot. Here,

Gaby's mums genuine wide smile which oozes

love and contentment along with baby Gaby's 

real smile make this a highly successful shot for me.

 When it comes to family photography and the smaller family arrangements I genuinely long for a shoot where a crazy family moment erupts. If I have to be pinned down on when these moments might come I'd say most often near the end of time shooting. I think this is  when families are getting bit tired and bored of posing. This wonderful shot is from a family shoot from 2 years ago where a regular family portrait broke out into a friendly brawl and brother foot fight. 

This image cracks me up every time I see it, I feel like I 

was privy to special family moment of silliness. 

From the same shoot we had another moment of madness - a staged photo highjacked by Granddad and the resulting photo is far more precious as a 'real' and silly family moment than a staged shot would have been. 

 

FYI: Grandparents can become very unpredictable as a shoot goes on - always keep a close eye on them to  be safe ;)

In truth it is the little ones who really do become rather unpredictable as shoot goes on which is totally understandable especially if they have been super compliant with smiles and being moved about but these unpredictable outbursts, so long as they aren't the teary, tired kind, have worked to my 

advantage in the past.

Here little Lyla had been a dream modelling for me for nearly an hour 

for a Mothering Sunday shoot. We got some beautiful photos above

and below with her Nan and then.....

 .....suddenly in just one shot she took this moment to lick, yes lick, her mum. What I loved was that her mum adored that photo explaining that is was so typical of little Lyla. Love it.

I think it has been important to cover both the silly and the formal with family photography because I know that families often fall into these two different camps at different times. There is place for aesthetically pleasing photos where everyone is compliant, smiling and well arranged, the ones that live on the mantel piece. There is also a place for those real, laughing out loud photos that capture a precious moment in time that embodies love and laughter.

......and finally there are those creative types who believe in making a funny photo to make people smile and I'm a sucker for these so if this is you then here are a couple of blog posts to get your fun, creative juices flowing and if you attempt any of these you must share them with me! I insist :)

http://www.brit.co/funny-family-holiday-photo-ideas/?utm_campaign=pinbutton_hover

http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/awesome-christmas-card-ideas-you-should-steal#.xbjkMkqAq3

http://www.buzzfeed.com/thefalafel/photos-taken-by-the-worlds-most-creative-dad-4x8q

If you try any of these tips do send me your photos I'd love to see them and if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.

However, if you are in that, 'OMG, I totally want a great family photo' place but are overwhelmed by doing it yourself then never fear, help is here! Click here to contact me so you can check this off your list. Easy Peasey

12 days of Christmas photography tips. Day six, tip six: The Traditional Family Portrait Part 2 - Children

The Traditional Family Photography (Part 2) - Photographing Children.

Me: 
As a family photographer I work in mix of styles with families.

I try primarily to work in a candid way, especially with children becuase as soon as they start to ignore the camera they become more relaxed. Alongside this type of photography I often mix in some posed shots of everyone smiling happily at the camera. So, Is there a magic formula? 

When it comes to photographing children it is easy to see why parents struggle to get that beautiful photo they long for. You know the one, your'e chatting to your little one or watching them play and you see that smile or that expression you long to capture on camera, the one that makes you go to mush inside but you have no camera to hand and if you did have you know as soon as you picked it up chances are you'd have just missed it.

Well fear not - help is here but first of all pick your backdrop wisely!

Shooting out of Doors

In Summer, Spring and Autumn nature tends to lend it's self as a beautiful backdrop for little ones. This photo of little Scarlett is testimony to this. 

Here we got Scarlet's Mum to lift her up so we 

had the blossom in the background which worked well. 

But becuase it's winter and cold and wet I'm going to focus on indoor photos with children. 

Shooting inside.

First things first, as discussed previously, pick the place you want to sit or stand your subject. Make sure there are no distractions like toys in shot and for an aesthetically pleasing photo, one you might want to frame or send to grand parents, makes sure the backdrop is aesthetically pleasing too. 

This fabulous sofa made for real interest as a backdrop with 

this little one and in this photo below we utilised the ultra cool 

wallpaper for an interesting backdrop.

Keeping them still

Well for really tiny ones you might want to use something like their high chair, a perfect way to keep them where you want them which additionally gives you time to get that fab shot. Try not to feed them anything really messy while taking photos - a biscuit works well and then just keep on photographing and eventually you will have one photo you love. 

Older Children

With older children you have more options. If you are feeling energetic then get them involved in a game and follow them around such as playing in a play house or you could get them to make you a pretend snack in their mini kitchen as we did with Sofia in the photo below... and ask them to tell you what they are doing as they are doing it. 

In this photo underneath I followed this little girl around as she was playing in her playhouse chatting to me about what she was doing and that's how I 

captured this cute picture.

Finally, is there a magic formula? Well for me there is and it involves talking to little ones and getting them to talk to you. I'm using little Martha, below, to show you what you can expect to see when you use a good chat to get a good photo.

Here we sat Martha down in a well lit area on a rather lovely sofa and I began to chat to her about play-school and who her friends were. These are results:

You will get some fabulous faces raging from confusion, to deep thought and then to a happy thought and eventually - BAM! - the shot you wanted.

If you try any of these tips do send me your photos I'd love to see them and if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.

However, if you are in that, 'OMG, I totally want a great family photo' place but are overwhelmed by doing it yourself then never fear, help is here! Click here to contact me so you can check this off your list. Easy Peasey

12 days of Christmas photography tips. Day four, tip four: Framing Your Shot

Day four, tip four:  Framing your shot - The Rule of Thirds

You might look at this Framing Your Shot as the second part Day 1,tip 1, Compose You Shot. Once yo've cleared the clutter and have a willing subject then knowing how to position that subject to get a truly aesthetically pleasing images is a big help.

So lets take a look at framing. To be precise framing is really a combination balance, layout and arrangement. Some people have a natural feel for what works well and others just need a bit of guidance and one of the best guides to use is the Rule of Thirds.

This is Darren Rowse's description of the theory from Digital Photography School Blog

‘The theory is that if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines that your photo becomes more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally. Studies have shown that when viewing images that people’s eyes usually go to one of the intersection points most naturally rather than the centre of the shot – using the rule of thirds works with this natural way of viewing an image rather than working against it.'

DR

What you need to do

The idea behind the rule of thirds is to imagine dividing an image into thirds by drawing three horizontal lines and then three vertical lines so that you have 9 parts. The grid should look like this

Many smart phone and tablet devices provide 

you with this kind of grid for taking and framing photos

This grid (our rule of thirds) tells us where the four most important parts of the image are that you should consider placing people or key points of interest in the image at these cross-sections .

Here the top right interest point falls over baby Etta's eye. 

Incidentally, the eyes happen to be the first thing that most people are drawn to when they look at an image that contains a face so it's important to make sure they are absolutely in sharp focus.

These key four areas are not the only parts of the photo which when utilised make for truly pleasing images to look at. We must not forget the four lines that make up this magical grid. If you place key subjects or your horizon along these lines your image automatically becomes more pleasing to the eye. 

It is really up to you how you use this framing rule. I've been photographing people long enough to know roughly where I need to place them and I do find images more appealing when i frame or crop them using this rule than if I don't.

I cropped these photos of Gaby using the rule of thirds so

that the top right interest point now falls across the expressive part of her face which encourages us to look there first. 

Yet this photo of teenager Natalia (below) doesn't strictly work with the rule of thirds grid but you don't have to be strict, you can be approximate as I have been and still end up with a beautiful feel to a photograph. There are other pleasing elements at play in this image such as diagonals which you can find more information on in the blog I reference below, The 10 Rules of Composition.

What baby Gaby and Natalia have in common is that are looking into the image/frame and our natural curiosity is to want to follow that line of gaze which means our eyes naturally sweep across the photo. 

Once you've been playing about with the Rule of Thirds for a while it will eventually become second nature. 

In these 12 days blog posts there really isn't enough time to go into all the little tips and tricks associated with fabulously aesthetically pleasing images but you can read more here in The 10 Rules of Composition 

In short: Off Centre and sharp eyes work a treat.

If you try any of these tips do send me your photos I'd love to see them and if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.

However, if you are in that, 'OMG, I totally want a great family photo' place but are overwhelmed by doing it yourself then never fear, help is here! Click here to contact me so you can check this off your list. Easy Peasey

Sammi Sparke Photography working between Sheffield, Cambridge and London

12 days of Christmas photography tips. Day three, tip three: Low Light Photography.

Lighting Part 2

Low Light Photography. When Night Time Falls (even if that happens at 15.30pm!)

Before we begin, for those of you using cameras where you can adjust the ISO, to get the best results  you will beed to push that up as far as you can being mindful of the fact that the further you increase it the more grain appears in the image. For everyone else using automatic settings on cameras or iphones/tablets you need not worry. These devices are quite exceptional at dealing with low light but holding them exceptionally still or mounting them on a tripod will yield better results for this type of photography.


So, Rather than grumble at the pesky lack of light which I often do at this time of year, my aesthetic as a natural light baby and children photographer resting on it, let us find some ways to embrace it.

These photos where taken in the middle of a room and lighting wise there is a wall lamp to Alana's right hand side (you can see how the side of her face is lit by it) which is strongest of the light sources at play here in the room. The rest of the light, the ambient light within the room, comes from different places some of which is provided by the TV flickering in the background. These different sources of light within the room make for an arty, moodily lit image of Alana opening her advent Calendar.

What additionally adds interest are the colourful Christmas lights in the background which (as I briefly mentioned in day 1 tip one) if your subject is clearly in focus in the foreground then the lights in the backgrund will blur to great effect. This is called Bokeh and it is a very pretty effect that I love.

Extra tip: We asked Alana to save the opening of her advent calendar that day for me to photograph and it doesn't hurt when photographing children to set up a scene or a scenario as we have here. I ensured that the pretty Christmas lights would be visible in the background and then I set Alana up on her little table and seat and asked her to open her advent calendar. By doing this, photographing something real happening which in this case was the excitement of finding out what was in the advent Calendar draw, you are capturing a sincere response whatever that response may be. This can really make the photo.

This image above is lit by the blue light of the television. Alana was very involved in watching her program which meant I had opportunity to get a candid photo of Lani, a sweet profile shot lit from an unusual but effective light source. To maximise this effect make sure all other lighting in the room is switched off so the only source of light is the TV, you can create some very arty shots this way.


The image below goes some way to showing you how this may look. The room was very dark and an iphone was being used to add some light to a shoe that was proving rather difficult to do up. The light looked so beautiful on the faces of all involved I wanted to capture it.

If you try any of these tips do send me your photos I'd love to see them and if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.

However, if you are in that, 'OMG, I totally want a great family photo' place but are overwhelmed by doing it yourself then never fear, help is here! Click here to contact me so you can check this off your list. Easy Peasey

Sammi Sparke Photography working between Sheffield, Cambridge and London

12 days of Christmas photography tips. Introduction.

Introducing Sammi Sparke Photography's 12 days of Christmas Photography tips, a little something for families wanting to take better, more creative photos over the Christmas period.

As a family photographer I been into many houses and photographed many adults and children over the years. Every single shoot i've undertaken in my 6 years working with families have been part of a wonderful learning curve and an insight into the simple things that make all the difference in creating fabulous photos. So here, over the next 12 days, I look to share with you a few nuggets of useful tips to help you create some fab photos of your family over the the Christmas period.

Whether you are using a smart phone, tablet/ipad, professional camera or disposable camera these tips can work for all of you and don't require any specific level of expertise.

So sit back, enjoy and if you try any of these out I would love you to post your photos on my facebook or twitter page for us to have a look out:

Sammi Sparke Facebook  

or  

Twitter:Sammi Sparke Twitter  with hashtag #Sparkephototips

Happy Photographing 

New Born Photography with a Sparkle. (Practice makes perfect.)

This year I have started to offer new born and bump photography and what a learning curve it has been.

Baby Bumps

The bump side to my bump to baby photography has been a lot of fun and I feel truly in my comfort zone with this - sensitively capturing the beauty, happiness, love and hope that a woman exudes while she is pregnant has proved truly satisfying for me as a photographer.

The new born side to the bump to baby shoots however, has been far more of a learning curve for several reasons.



Newbies

The primary challenges I have faced with new borns revolves around how I make a new born shoot my own.

I do not use a studio and my photography style is very much against (for want of a better description) the studio photography aesthetic.  I am through and through a lifestyle family photographer favouring a reportage approach where I can, natural light and always a real back drop such as the home or nature.

I wanted to still offer however, as part of my package, some 'studio style' new born images. You know the ones, where babies are swaddled, cocooned and sleeping often with random flowers or hats attached to their tiny heads. These are pretty cute images and understandably they are something that lots of my mums tend to want.

So, I had to learn this and wow, what a challenge! I needed to acquire a rather odd skill set;how to model new born babies. Yep. I was petrified. They are so tiny. I really must acknowledge here that learning this stuff was only made this possible thanks to dear family and friends. These guys let me practice on their new bors and bless them, their confidence in me helped me feel more confident in return.

With my first ever new born shoot featuring my niece, my brother had to lay underneath the blanket we put her on so she felt warm and contented and that way he could manipulate her arms and legs to help get her into the optimum position for the shot.

Aside from hands on practice I watched every You Tube video going on the subject, I watched them before, during and after and I still watch them now. I also looked at every new born photography tip and bit of advice out there. It was quite a learning curve.

The greater problem however still existed that parents could go to most high street studios to get these staged kinds of images and I needed to offer something else in my packages, something that made my new born shoots at home special. With this in mind I needed to bring the home and the family into my images.

   

In the future I look forward to being able to capture more of those everyday looking after baby moments: Baby's nursery, baby being bathed, baby being dressed, baby with sibling(s), parents with baby out for walk, grandparents and pets.

Essentially, I want each of my shoots at home to represent each individual and unique family I work with.

.....and unlike studio photography you also won't be paying through the nose for every image you want.

I'm not a studio. I'm not photographing several babies a day and making hundreds of pounds on selling you prints and charging you extra for the digital files.

I actually tend to get quite attached to my clients which on the whole works out pretty well for them, for you. I really want you to have all the images I take especially considering the work that's gone into making them for you. I've come to your home, taken the time and care to photograph your new born with you, the parents and sometimes other family, and then I've gone away and spent hours editing those photos using my expertise to create stand out images you can't wait to show off in your home or by sharing with friends and family on your social media.

So here, finally, is my NewBorn package. A package which beats the socks off of any studio shoot in a monetary sense as well as, according to my clients, in the style and choice of images you get.

Photo bundles are charged at the following New Born shoots at home:

• £250 for Sheffield and Cambridge clients.  For all other clients travel is extra

Each shoot includes:

• A two hour shoot on location
• Editing / artistic enhancements
• 10 images
• All 10 images sent to you in both
• High-resolution, perfect for printing any size
• Low-resolution, perfect for online viewing, web devices or for sharing on social media   (Extra images can be bought for 10 pounds an image)

• 1 x a3 professional prints
• Opt in for a New Born book for £50 extra.

Or until October ONLY the incredible offer of.....

• £300 for Sheffield and Cambridge clients. For all other clients travel is extra

Each shoot includes:

• A two hour shoot on location
• Editing / artistic enhancements
• 30 images
• All 30 images sent to you in both
• High-resolution, perfect for printing any size
• Low-resolution, perfect for online viewing, web devices or for sharing on social media

• 2 x a3 professional prints
• Opt in for a New Born book for £50 extra.

'Bump to Baby' image prices and 'Bump, Baby and Beyond' image prices coming soon.

www.sammisparke.com

info@sammisparke.com

07879 423231