Portraits at the Turtle Bay Gardens

The Turtle Bay Gardens were a prime location Saturday! While there, I saw at least four other photographers! The gardens are so beautiful year round. So when everywhere else is too dreary or shaby looking, the gardens are the definite go to! It was overcast which added an extra soft feel to the images. :) I love soft dreamy portraits, so these conditions were amazing to me!

I have so much fun capturing these guys! Luke & Olivia are adorable! And yes, I am biased… But Auntie’s can be biased right?! Haha! Luke is so much like his daddy! His expressions, his personality, everything is like a mirror image of his dad. And Olivia is like her momma in a lot of ways. She is so cute! Even when she’s throwing a fit, she is still adorable. (As you’ll see later on in this post when she gets upset and crosses her arms.)

SURPRISE BONUS TIPS for all my photographer friends:

I wanted to give a few quick tips on capturing children. Children can be very unpredictable! They will either be extremely workable and easy, or they will be extremely hard to deal with. Either way, there are a few tips and tricks to try and make the session go smoothly.

• First tip is to stay calm no matter what. If the child senses the tension rising in you, they are likely to get nervous and act up. Just roll with the flow and focus on the client experience!

• Next tip, try and keep the parents calm too. So many times I’ve seen the parents stress out and start yelling/disciplining the children and it typically makes matters worse. Start by gently educating the parents with “oh don’t worry about it, I’ll work with them, you just focus on smiling and looking at the camera”. This tells them that they don’t have to jump in and make their children cooperate for us. It’s our job to work with the kids and win their trust (and smiles!).

• Try the old trick of “reverse psychology”. Saying phrases like “Don’t Smile!” will often result in the child laughing and giving an adorable smile!

• When all else fails, ignore them. Children love attention, but when they’re not cooperating sometimes it helps to ignore them for a little bit. Move on to another sibling or the parents and work with them for a while. Many times this sparks an interest in the child (or quite frankly, jealousy…) and they will then decide they too want to be in the photos!

• Last resort, if the location has an area that sparks the child’s interest (such as a playground, or a bunch of leaves, etc), transition to that area and give them a few minutes to play. Use this time to follow them around snapping candid’s. You’ll probably wind up with some adorable images of happy children!

Hope that helps you on your next session involving children! If you’d like to see more tips from me please comment below and let me know.

Happy Capturing!

-Jen