An honest subject

I’m a firm believer that people change considerably when they make a big effort to look good in a picture. The most attractive people I know are the ones who relax, stay themselves and just take it as it comes. If you want to see total honesty in a photo, then you’ll get it from just about any kid under the age of 10. Mention photography of children to people and they conjure up babies on rugs, or primary school photos showing reluctant, awkward smiles. Make children pose and they’ll hate it. Let them be themselves and you’re on to something.

I was recently commissioned to shoot some casual shots of a young girl, the ultimate aim being for the family to have a few photographs for framing. I wanted to try and capture the person in a location, but beyond that I wanted to keep an open mind. The plan was to go out and about, have a good time, and record some stuff without placement or direction. This can be a little risky, because as we all know kid’s moods change in an instant, but nothing ventured nothing gained. The location was to be around Aldeborough on the Suffolk coast, maybe the beach, maybe a park too. The day was freezing cold and we aimed for the beach first. While there were bouts of sunshine, for the most part the day was overcast and this worked well as shadows didn’t come into play. Plus I was shooting black & white for a lot of the time, so a high level of ambient light wasn’t required. 

The first shot here was during a little stone throwing competition, but it gives the feel of a child lost in thought on a windswept day. I’ve cropped the height down to provide a slighty more panoramic feel (to me it feels a little like the end of a movie) and I’m really happy with the result. The picture could be viewed as generic by somebody who doesn’t know the subject, but from the parent’s perspective it’s also unmistakably their daughter, so it works. The technical elements are very simple, no point being elaborate because the feel of the day was very editorial and off the cuff. It’s shot at 400asa on a 24mm lens, slightly underexposed to bring out the clouds, with the lighting on the body tweaked later because the file is RAW. Some people might light this with flash to add a little drama, but unless I can use a studio softbox I don’t like flash, so it was natural light all the way. I could have asked somebody to stand next to me and hold a reflector panel, punching some light into the foreground, but that would have taken away the spontaneity of the picture and disturbed the moment. Next stop, a nearby castle…

Anything with ruins or places to hide are winners with kids. They don’t give a damn about the history, but at the same time they love the environment. The second shot was simply a matter of chatting and walking and when we came to a gap in the wall, she looked right at me. That worked up to a point, but then when something distracted her and she looked away – bingo – it makes the picture because the lack of eye contact lends a much more natural feel. Again, really straightforward set-up : 800asa, 50mm lens, but this time with the aperture opened up to pull some light into the shadows. It’s been cropped square because the walls to the left and right were just wasted frame space.

The last location was a park, where the thinking was to use a setting totally different to the beach or the castle. I also wanted one of the framed prints to include some detail, vary the content a little and move away from just a person. I deliberately used only one lens on this, the 300mm, shot at f2.8. This focal length gives a feel which is very middle ground heavy, that’s to say it throws the back and foreground out of focus and results in the complete opposite of the beach picture, which is almost as much about the clouds as the little girl. After a few detail shots typical of the surroundings, intended to compliment the portrait, I just used the evening backlight to shoot another casual pic. There’s a feeling about the last one, it says “I’m tired” after a long day having fun, so a natural end to the set. Keeping this one colour was important too because then the slightly golden feel of the evening works with the tree detail. Putting them together and cropping quite tightly also makes the print interesting and varied. So, not brain surgery by any means. Just an approach free from photographic trickery, no complicated set-up and a pleasure to shoot. Small slices of somebody’s childhood caught forever…