As a photographer I always hope to be able to connect to my clients in some way. I find this to be more and more important as time goes on.

When it comes to family sessions – I have discovered that the best way to connect to the entire family is to find a connection with the little ones. This usually isn’t very challenging for me because I have no problem being silly and playing games to get toddlers to warm up to me… however, every once in a while I am challenged with little ones who are not so easy to win over. I try my best to accept this as a challenge to over come but am still constantly learning the best way to accomplish this. Every child is different – so not all of my tricks and games work on all of them.

During this maternity session, Cole was a special situation because when I began photographing his beautiful pregnant mother, he was napping. Not wanting to waste precious photography time with Mom and Dad, I began to photograph them as Grandma pushed Cole around in his stroller. Cole awoke to see a strange girl photographing his parents and he was NOT having it. He was not interested in looking at me or having conversations with me and because I had already began photographing, I didn’t have as much time to get him to warm up to me as I usually do… add to that, the fact that he had just woken up – and you might understand where I am coming from.

A trick I picked up from another photographer was to find out who the child’s favorite character is and tell them that that character is in my lens and that they have to look for them. This sometimes works and sometimes it doesn’t. I found out that Cole’s favorite character is none other than – Minnie Mouse. No – not Mickey Mouse… Cole LOVES Minnie Mouse. You’ll see my first image of Cole is a black and white shot of him peeking around a brick pillar. I said, “Cole… Would you like to see Minnie Mouse?” He poked his head around the pillar and I snapped that shot.

He was such a beautiful little guy that it was so hard for me not to be able to photograph the heck out of him! I got a few fun shots as the session progressed but never quite cracked the Cole case…. You can’t win ’em all right? I am very much looking forward to my next session with the Martindale family when they welcome their little princess. And next time I will be fully prepared for Cole…. I picked up some Minnie Mouse ears from Disneyland last week and have a few other new tricks up my sleeve!

I LOVE these maternity photos of Kimberly and cannot wait to meet the newest member of their family. She is expected to arrive any day now!

With Love,

Brianna