Portrait Photography Goals

After doing a few recent portrait sessions, I came to a realization - I don't do that well with adult portraits. I really have to work at it much more than with kids. After thinking this through a bit, I came to the conclusion that I'm not very good reading adult body language from behind the lens. In short, I need more practice.

I take a lot of pictures of kids - my kids, other people's kids (portraits, school programs, etc.) and have more practice and learning in reading children's body language from behind the lens. As a result, I have better timing and a better sense of how to photograph kids. Part of it is ease - most kids have few inhibitions and have no qualms about getting in front of a camera. Get them to dance, spin, jump, and they relax right away and you can get some great shots.

Adults, on the other hand, realize that picture that's being taken will capture their physical character traits in all their beauty or "uniqueness." And that picture will stick around. In fact, it's likely meant to be broadcast to a wide audience via cards, emails, blogs, portrait in the living room, etc. Adults realize all this and have a tendency to clam up, stiffen up, and get tense in front of the lens. They are suddenly very conscious and feel very exposed in front of the lens. The body language that children so easily broadcast is guarded and closed off by many adults. Teenagers - take this and multiple by 100.

So the question is - how to get adults - or teenagers, with all their hypersensitivity - to relax in front of the camera? How to read that adult body language, get them to reveal their personality, and, in short, lower their guard and become child-like for just a bit?

One of my photographic goals of this coming year is to work on grown-up portraits (adult portraits just doesn't sound appropriate) and document what works and what doesn't work. By putting something in writing here the thought is that it will help me process and think things through a bit more.

Related to this, another goal is to do a photo of the week, with a walk-through and some notes about it. Again, putting things down helps me slow down and really process something. So here's to a new year of photographic progress!