Twins at 18 Days
Just 18 days old, these brother and sister twins proved to be a dream to shoot. I arrived just before feeding time only to find the two safely tucked into their swings sleeping away. While I was setting up the girl began to open her eyes as if to supervise what I was doing. She was far more interested in the bottle that was to come and let me know with a cry of joy when it arrived. Her brother couldn’t be bothered with much at all. That’s him on the left.
Shortly after feeding, the kids were on the floor on a blanket as I was shooting rapidly. Chase, the boy, blinked every time the strobe light fired. He stared straight ahead and strained as he prepared to fill his diaper–so much so that he turned red as a beet.
Shooting very young children is challenging. They don’t respond to direction and they frustrate parents who would like everything to be perfect. That is precisely why I choose to take time to shoot children. The idea is to spend enough time to capture multiple images that are, in the end, accurate depictions of the memories that pass so quickly.
During this shoot I learned the art of flexibility as well. During the middle of the shoot my sync cord failed and I could no longer fire my strobes. OMG what to do? My solution was simple…they usually are. I decided to shoot using the modeling lights and a faster ISO. It worked out quite well. Initial panic was replaced by falling back on technical knowledge and the shoot went smoothly even with the hitch of the sync cord.
