baby phots mum not happy at the photo shoot

[BEWITCHED]

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[blackwell17]

6 months is hard to capture, but I feel you did a pretty good job of it! My niece is 18 months and she is STILL hard to get to sit down in my "studio" and take some shots. Only way I can get any decent shots is if she is running around the house with me following her with my camera. Then it is just luck of the draw and bouncing my flash off the ceiling to get a decent shot.

Good job though, maybe you could offer her another shoot if she isn't satisfied?

[PhotosGuy]

6 months is hard to capture,

This one was 6 weeks. I found that 6 months is when they have a bit of personality, can sit for 5 seconds, & are much easier to shoot.
You have some shots she was happy with. Maybe offer a (small) discount on a 6 month shoot.

[GPR1]

Thankfully, she seemed happy. You have no control over whether her baby was in a good mood, so I don't think you owed her anything. However, if you had felt it necessary to do something a small discount on a future photoshoot would be best. You did you work for this one, and deserved to be paid.

[sl3966]

Well, I would probably have offered to re-schedule if she was worried. But if I had already done the shoot then I would not have offered a refund or discount unless it was because of some fault of my own. I think you did a good job here.

[blackwell17]

Originally Posted by PhotosGuy

This one was 6 weeks. I found that 6 months is when they have a bit of personality, can sit for 5 seconds, & are much easier to shoot.
You have some shots she was happy with. Maybe offer a (small) discount on a 6 month shoot.

whoops..baby is a bit small for 6 months huh?

Regardless of what I typed, young children under 2 years are difficult in general to photograph.

[vpnd]

You agreed to shoot the baby. you did that. I shoot kids and if my tricks don't work and the two year old(or whatever age) misbehaves for the whole shoot. I DO NOT FEEL BAD. I did everything in my power as a photographer. I was also a stay at home dad for three kids, I feel I can calm a kid down if there are a little bit rational. For example I take my transmitter off my hot shoe when they come in and see the lites. When they get the lights to flash a couple of times they are usually comfortable under the lights. Stuffed animals acting like puppets almost always works with two year olds. I ramble. In the future ask some up front questions with little ones. When normal naps are. When feedings are, as some kids including mine , go braindead when hungry. Try to get the 6 week old to sleep for the shoot. Be ready, planned out, and take good pictures quick. Good luck hope I didn't ramble too much

[LBaldwin]

Get ypur self a piece of cardboard or foamcore, and use it like a fan to move air over the babies face. It usually gets some great expresssions. BTW This photo shoot went way too long. If you can't get it in 15-20 minutes try for other time.

Les

[sonshine_rae]

I did a three week old a while back... I think it took about 2 or 2.5 hours for the shoot (can't remember now).

But I am a very relaxed photographer (and a mother myself), and we would stop at the drop of a hat, if the mother felt she needed to comfort, hold, feed, change the baby. So we stopped a lot.

However.. my client was THRILLED with the service.. time/effort.. and the Portraits..

I will say though.. you have to be upfront with clients.. about infants and smiles.. I will NOT guarantee a smile from their child.

Infants younger then 3-4 months possibly even closer to 6 months.. have a hard time smiling for strangers (aka the photographer). You have to involve the parents a lot to catch a smile.. but I try to stress cute poses, expressions etc instead.. and if we happen to get a smile then GREAT!

6 week old infants BARELY are starting to 'socially smile' which means they are still learning to smile by choice and not just randomly.. so conjuring up a smile from one that young can be very hard.

Honestly I think you did very well.. and about the only thing you could have done otherwise was DURING the shoot.. you might have offered to reschedule.. if the baby seemed to be having a rough day. I like others always try to have the Mom schedule when baby will be happiest (fed, slept, etc) but sometimes it just doesn't work out.

It is typical however for parents to be exhausted.. after a photo shoot.. from trying to keep their child happy/smiling for the cameras and just the over all stress of the outing with a infant that young. That's one advantage to being able to 'proof' the photos to them later once they are all more rested and less stressed. Hence one of many reasons why I always do my proofing a couple days later from the session.

hth's a little.. honestly I think you did your absolute best.. and don't need to discount anything especially if she's now happy and willing to pay your original amount.

~Rae~

[sonshine_rae]

ETA Les,
I've often found with babies that young.. it does take a long time to get all the photos parents want.. inbetween the child's needs.

Most of my sessions run more like 30mins to an hour.. but young infants often take longer.

[PhotosGuy]

young children under 2 years are difficult in general to photograph.

IMO, any kids in a bad mood are difficult to photograph, or a better term might be "to shoot"? But when I started out, I did it every day by appointment in the home. 15-20 minutes max. I could always get a half roll (12) before they decided how they felt about the process.
Thing is, YOU need to be ready before they ever come in the room. The newness of the environment will interest them... for about 2 minutes.

Get ypur self a piece of cardboard or foamcore, and use it like a fan to move air over the babies face. It usually gets some great expresssions. BTW This photo shoot went way too long. If you can't get it in 15-20 minutes try for other time.

In the less PC times, I'd blow in their face & it always worked at least once.
Get whatever expression you can for a few shots, looking at you, looking right & left, maybe with a favorite toy in a shot. Then work on a smile. If you get crying instead, you still have enough for a 6 shot composite.

[LBaldwin]

Originally Posted by sonshine_rae

ETA Les,
I've often found with babies that young.. it does take a long time to get all the photos parents want.. inbetween the child's needs.

Most of my sessions run more like 30mins to an hour.. but young infants often take longer.

I guess we come from different schools. When I was taught childs play (the techniques for getting those poses / expressions / eye contact) I was taught that you have a very short window in which each age will respond in a positive fashion. Like most kiddie photographers we used fans to blow air, a fuzzy under the chin or cheek and funny noises to get the attention in the correct direction, eyes on the prize and shoot the shots.

This is never easy with newborns. We used tummy posers to get them to hold up their heads safely. I rarely let the Mom's or Grandmas make the noise or call the children simply because they would call the child or infants gaze off camera. I would routinely get the shot I wanted and only had reshoots two or three times a month, when averaging 250 sittings per week. I did allow for more than 15-20 minutes for special needs children or adults and for kids whose attention was naturally shorter.

Developing this speed was a great advantage to my later career, oddly enough when shooting brides and execs whose alotted time seems to shrink automatically.

Les

[PhotosGuy]

We used tummy posers to get them to hold up their heads safely.

A blanket over a rolled pillow works well. NOT a foam pillow! Sometimes you could prop their head up on their hand (for the 1/2 sec you needed to get your hand out of the way.)
Here's a similar shot showing how the pillow works, I'd have folded it's hands under it's chin. That not only looks better, but it gives it some leverage to raise it's head for a better shot. Be ready for that!
7 week old, colour or b+w?

The beauty of this technique is that you can spin the whole works, baby+pillow+blanket to the right & left quickly & get a Rt & L shot in under a minute. It also adds a bit of interest to the child's brain so it's takes longer for it to decide, "Well, I'm NOT liking this!"