Laughter is the Best Medicine

Any photographer will tell you that portrait sessions can be a challenge. Especially for first time clients. No one is really prepared to have a camera snapping away, feeling shy, self-conscious, unprepared, and all kinds of awkward. Sometimes photos feel rigid, rehearsed, unnatural. As photographers, how do we help break the ice? Laughter.

Laughter truly is the best medicine. Even as a photographer, a good laugh at the start of a session helps me loosen up, revives my passion and gets the creative juices flowing. I am finding that my favorite pictures are the ones captured in between poses. Those brief moments when they forget I'm there and do their own thing for a few minutes, sparking a laugh or knowing smile at an inside joke or special love. Sometimes, I even make up reasons to dabble with my camera, adjust settings etc. to give them a few breaths to relax, enjoy each other and think I'm not looking so they can be "themselves" for a moment. Then SNAP! Real life, real love, frozen in time. Those are the photos I love the best. The ones I didn't TRY to get. The ones that found me.

Chrissie, Robert and little Kylie were true examples of a family that loves laughter. I could tell in just a few minutes with them that they were going to be a lot of fun (Especially Kylie! LOVE HER!). When you let life do it's thing and give people time to be themselves, laugh a little, and then allow yourself to fade into the background and become a silent observer, it's there that you find why you do this. Why you're a photographer. I love what I do!