They Say Never Work With Children or Animals...
By Mike Melnotte
7 Jun 2009
O.K. So the saying may apply when you're making movies. I'm sure there's many a director and producer that have made that statement from a certified mental health facility after their on-set breakdowns. Let's face it, getting extended performances out of recalcitrant actors has got to be an ordeal. However, the arena of photography is an entirely different bag of bananas.
I'm not minimizing the frustration and effort that can can come with trying to shoot kids and animals. After all, we've all said a prayer for the guy at the mall photo center who's trying to wrangle 2 or 3 screaming children dressed in their Sunday best (Hey, better him than me!). Yet the opportunities we have for a quick capture of the innocence and emotions of children or the beauty, color and textures of animals are so worth it.
Of course, this is what I'm telling myself when I'm scooping baby toads and lizards out of the grass for a macro shot. Or conversing with my daughter like this:
Me: Look up honey.
Her: Where?
Me: Here. Where my hand is.
Her: Which hand?
Me: The one that's in front of you.
Her: That one?
Me: Yes.
Her: (While coughing and breathing on the lens) Are we done yet?
Me: Almost
Her: I think I'm done.
Somewhere the mall guy is laughing at me I'm sure.
The payoff comes when cropping and tweaking the photos and seeing the outcome in the forms of beauty, detail or for lack of better words, the sheer moments of fun you were able to steal. The smile my kids get when they see a picture of themselves and say "Hey. that's me!" is awesome. I hope they'll remember these moments when daddy had the camera in his hand and will learn to embrace a hobby with the same vigor.
Thank you National Geographic photographers for what you do. Thank you Anne Geddes for not taking that job at Jiffy Lube when you were young. When it comes to photographing kids and animals I say it's well worth it.
2 responses
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Rey mos gave props (9 Jun 2009):
Interesting story. I do love kids and animals to be photographed but it is a challenging task to do to capture the moment!
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Zerina Phillip said (7 Dec 2009):
Wow! Wonderful photos. Kids are fantastic, so do animals. My way with working with children is to remember when I was a child..
