Bribery Will Get You Everywhere!

I have been doing a lot of Family Stories this Spring. I have to say my favorite part is getting to know the children. I spend A LOT of time with kids as a mom of three, easily more time with them than with adults. So I speak their language and am endlessly fascinated with their personalities and how they see the world. Recently Libby Dodds and Tim Ashley came for a family portrait. I first met them at their wedding in 2002 and had met their son, Benjamin, a couple of times before they moved to New York. They were visiting North Carolina in April and decided to make an appointment to come in so I could meet their daughter, Megan. I am so glad they did!

Libby says that rather than fill the walls of their home with art they are doing a yearly photo collage. They get the same Pottery Barn frame and fill it with a variety of sizes of prints in both horizontal and vertical. They wanted the whole family, the children together and each child alone. We knocked the whole family part out first, as often that is the most difficult. To capture images of Megan, a 16-month-old, I just followed her around as she went about her toddler ways. She went up and down the two stairs in the studio about 100 times, she was nice enough to lick the studio windows clean and we then wandered around the yard looking for the cat.

For Ben, who is a very smart five-year-old, I had to employ different methods- BRIBERY! I had gone to a children’s photography seminar a couple of years ago in which a very well-respected, nationally known children’s portrait photographer instructed us all to bribe children with candy so they would sit still for a photo. I cannot do that in good conscience as I don’t want folks to leave their photo shoot with kids all jacked up on sugar. I am not saying I never will, but so far other methods have worked well. So I bribed Ben with getting to ride a battery-powered truck we have. I told him if he was my “helper” that he would get to learn to use the truck and he happily obliged. When children leave a KPO Photo Family Story I want them to feel like they have just been a fun play date, not a boring old family portrait.

You can see the WHOLE STORY HERE.