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Children

Let's consider the little ones first. The really little ones: six months or less. Fresh born they're just beautiful little bundles, seldom responding much even to a tiny jingle or a bright shape. But beautiful anyway. Cradled on a Mom's or Dad's shoulder or peeking out from a tight hug will make a lovely photo. Or in a cradle or even a car seat, perhaps admired by fascinated and proud siblings. Just a very few shots is all we would take.

By five or six months they can come back and finish the first sitting, with (see below or call for details) no additional sitting fee. Now they're very aware of their surroundings and although they may hardly even crawl yet, they respond so well to simple fun. It's often possible to catch them interacting at very close quarters with a parent. Or responding to bubbles, balloons, bells, squeaky noises, puppets — or just plain clowning. They push up on their arms, begin to creep and crawl, and sit proudly on their own, relishing their independence, and starting to display clearly their own individuality.

Next comes the plunge into toddling. Again, there's no new sitting fee to pay. Little more than a few minutes may be needed, and just a few images. A wonderful time for a quick session.

Enter the toddlers, preschoolers and just beyond. Fast and furious from the very moment they arrive — to quiet, shy and painfully reluctant to emerge from hiding. The brave gallop into the studio and pounce on our toy box — the shyest just creep hesitantly in, draping themselves around the door jamb, or have to be carried in and cling to a parental knee. And there's everything between. They get up to mischief, fool around, or hang about. We follow their lead. Whatever works. We dance and sing, yell, and throw footballs. Or just sit quietly on the floor, handing them playstuff and ideas. Somehow, sometime, somewhere along the way (generally quite soon!) they warm to us in their own way, and we make the photos. Fast!

We'll not define how they should act. No smiles demandd. We try to capture the personality of each child, just with patience and play. And superfast responses once the time is right.

There are no painted backgrounds or mock nineteenth century castles in this studio. No bucolic pastures with fake gates to lean on or crawl through; no pretend racing cars. No knights or queen costumes. Nothing fancy like that. Just the kids. Running, lying, dancing, scrambling, chasing, tumbling, even crying. We won't insist, but most end up smiling even laughing! That's kids, and we want our photographs to show them as they are. Each one special. Perhaps with just a little more zip than usual! Here's one with tons of zip:

View larger images of Rowan here.

We suggest you call to chat briefly with us and perhaps set up a preliminary appointment. There's absolutely no charge for such a meeting. No obligation if you come in and see us. And you can pull out at any time. We want to give you a chance to meet us in person and we need to get to know you a little, too, before any portrait sitting, so we can find out what you are looking for in the photos. Especially, though, we need to spend some time playing with the children just a few days before the portrait session. The studio environment is sometimes surprisingly daunting even for children who are quite relaxed about photos at home and we need to make it clear that this is a fun place. We have to turn a rather artificiial situation into something engaging and natural. One short visit is generally all it takes!

While they are exploring we can talk about clothes, our use of both color and black and white in our work, and how to prepare the child(ren) for the session. The main thing you need to do to prepare them is actually to do nothing out of the ordinary! It's all just a game. Try and treat the whole experience as a big joke and they'll have fun and we will too. That's the secret.

What about the big kids — preteens and teenagers? Very different preparation. The secret may be this: convince them we're reasonably cool and involve them at every step. Whatever that takes. Let them choose their own environment as far as you can: clothes, an outside location, sports equipment, music (cool stuff) jokes and some silly poses — as well as some less cool clothes and some rather less silly shots to please you and the other relatives. It's a challenge but generally we can win them over and make photos you like and they do too. Ask us to help

Unless you have younger kids as well, or the big kids in question have been coming in regularly since they were tiny and hence you paid a child sitting fee years ago, it's likely to your advantage for us to charge for your older kids (preteens and teenagers) by the visit, like adults, and ignore the special children's sitting fees discussed in the next section. Ask us!

The Sitting Fee and Proofs

Here's a bit about our fees for children. It applies mainly to little kids. Ask us for more details and a Price List when you call or come in. At the end of the previous section there's a little about how we approach photographing the older kids; they are generally better treated as adults when it comes to sitting fees.

For the younger ones there's a one-time sitting fee, which is like a retainer. The basic fee covers one or two children and up to two adults with them. If you have more than two, the fee is a little higher. If you have more children later, you simply upgrade. The original fee covers the first session and all subsequent visits except for possble upgrades. Your children and up to two adults can come in as often as you like, covered by the initial sitting fee. After the first sitting, however, you will pay for the proof folder each time the children come in.

Any sitting may need to spill over into a second session if the first fails to yield all we need. (If that happens you'll bring the children back for more photographs but there's no extra charge as long as we make up just one proof folder for the whole sitting.) After the sitting is complete, we'll print a proof folder, which should be ready in about a week. Generally about six images are printed on each page, and each sitting could yield a folder containing thirty or more proof images — if you want that many. After the first sitting, since the folder is no longer free, you may wish to ask for fewer images to be made. The folder is yours to keep.

Once you've paid the basic fee, you can come in as often as you like with all or some of the children, and you'll just pay a per page price for the proofs of each sitting, after the first, and no additional sitting fees.

Instead of Mom and/or Dad, you can substitute one or two other adults: grandparents, godparents, aunts or uncles, or whoever you like, and the adults can vary from time to time. A children's sitting automatically includes those possibilities, though it can be limited to just your kids if you like. Also you can have us make individual portraits, or portraits of just a couple of the kids, with or without parents, grandparents and so on.

You are never obliged to buy any photos beyond the proofs and we don't offer packages, but you can, of course, order enlargements of any size, and wallets too — at our standard portrait rates.

Once in a while, you may want us to photograph larger family groupings. These are a little different, for they don't fall under the original sitting fee and will be charged at our standard group rates. Still, it's really good to have a big family group with everyone in one terrific photograph. At Holiday time, perhaps, when everyone's in town? Of course, when the whole family is there we can take lots of photos of smaller groupings, and individuals. Ask us for our group rates!

The Sitting

We'll set up a date and time in advance for the portrait session. Somewhat early in the day, probably around 10:30 or 11, or maybe a little later if there's nap-time to reckon with. Don't worry a bit if you can't quite make it to the appointment on time. We know that often turns out to be impossible and we try to allow plenty of time each side of a child portrait, seldom scheduling more than one per morning.

It may be really hard to fit such a morning session into the schedules of busy parents, but it's truly worth while to find some way of doing so. We have never yet had a really good photography session with a child late in the day, after day-care or school. Even older children respond so much better on a day when there's no school and they can come in during the morning rather than when they've been in school all day. For our kind of work we need them to want to play — and be fresh enough to do so without frustration.

Really little children often seem very lively just before bed, and it's tempting to think this would be a good time for a session, after the grownups are done with work. But it's not. We have tried it. The just-before-bed giggley mood is so fragile we can't take advantage of it, for more often than not it dissolves into tears or worse before we can take a single photograph. We'll work with you to find some really good time earlier in the day.

At times, two of us work together to make the portrait. Once again we fool around on the kids' level; we'll be as silly as it takes. We're happy to play with them just as long as is necessary, before we even go into the camera room. But once we start, we work fast even though we continue playing. All photo sessions should be as short as possible, and that is specially true when children are involved.

We have a good-sized hamper of toys, which the chldren will have encoutered during the prelimnary session a few days earlier, but we encourage you to bring a few from home, whether or not those are to appear in the photographs. Some old friends can often be comforting if need be, and exciting to discover at crucial moments! And don't forget munchies that won't get the kids too messy, and (especially) something to drink!

As with our portraits of adults, some of our child portraiture is done in true black and white using film cameras. Abstracting away the color often seems to allow us to capture something special about the child, which can be lost in color portraits. At any rate, we mostly shoot both digital color and black and white film at a single session, and we recommend doing that unless you are absolutely certain you don't want us to, for we find we are often surprised by the color images when we expected black and white to be perfect — and vice versa.

We should also suggest the possibility of working outside, especailly with the older children. We often work up at Mellon Park, which is a very lovely place in the spring and summer — and has even given us some wonderful photos in the dead of winter. With the hardiest of teenagers!

Now a word on postponing the session! It may seem defeatist to bring that up at this point. But we have to. It's just realistic. Kids, specially the little ones, often suddenly come down with a cold, or a fever, acquire scratches on their faces, bumps on their foreheads, or new, bothersome teeth in their gums, just when you planned a photo session. Well, there's not much you can do but call us to postpone. Don't dose them up or paint their faces. Neither will help.

Call us, even at the last minute, and we'll happily reschedule! Sick kids take such awful portraits: medicine inside or makeup outside has remarkably little effect on the photos. The true mood just seeps to the surface!

Sometimes even when there's no illness or wound to blame, the child just isn't in the right mood. No matter. We'll try hard, then if necessary simply pack up and try again another day. That seldom fails. The child bounces confidently into the studio a week or so later and we have a wonderful session.

Proofs and Prints

We've already mentioned the proof folder. It should be ready to pick up in about ten days, digitally printed in an attractive and handy magazine-style proof folder, which is yours to keep. The black and white images, although recorded on film for hand enlarging in our studio darkroom, are scanned into the computer and will appear side- by-side with the digital color images in the proof folder. You will find it easy to order from this folder, and it is great to have as a record of your children as they grow. We have some parents who order very little beyond the proofs, but have their children come in often so they now have a pile of little picture-books of their growing family!

We do not sell portrait packages. In fact you do not need to order enlargements.However, prints are obviously available in various sizes and these can be ordered at any time. Once ordered they will be made for you within a week or so.

Our black and white portraits are, as already pointed out, made on black and white film. This is processed in the studio, and printed with great care in our own darkroom. Although the proofs are made digitally from the film we shoot, the enlargements are printed by hand from the negatives, on heavy fiber-based paper from Europe. After printing, they are thoroughly washed and then toned in a selenium bath to enhance them and increase their permanency.

We do not generally "desaturate" our digital files, printing them in black and white with inks or dyes unless you specially request this. Despite what is now frequently claimed, we do not find that this approach is satisfactory: the photographs lack texture and are always less intense than a true black and white printed from a negative on fiber-based paper containing lots of silver. In addition, they will not last as long as our prints.

For more on our use of both digital and film-based capture and printing, see the opening paragraphs of the Weddings page, and also About Us: Our Photography.