London, The Avengers and a Car Sick Toddler

Two weeks before Christmas, I received an email from a woman who lives in London wanting to have a family photo shoot during the holidays at her parents' home in Bedford. This would not be the typical family shoot with husband, wife and kids. This session would include 18 family members spanning four generations, coming in from Paris, London, Majorca, Seattle, Connecticut and NYC. Organized chaos? I’m in.

It was the mad rush of the holiday season and I was short staffed. Luckily my 20-year-old daughter was home from college and agreed to be my assistant for the day.  It’s always tricky to photograph family portraits on location. One never knows the layout of the house, the furnishings or the lighting; therefore, I scout out the spot before the day of the session. So off I went……I selected the room, moved furniture and designed layouts for the various groupings the next day.

On the day of the shoot, two of the families were delayed in traffic. Upon arriving, the youngest child, a 2 1/2 year-old boy, was suffering from terrible car sickness. He entered the house crying and clutching his binky. His mother said that he desperately needed a nap and doubted he’d be able to join the session.

There’s no magic formula for success when photographing children. Every session is different and children are unpredictable! You just go with the flow and improvise. After 16 years of photographing children, I know there is no forcing a child to do something, especially one who has thrown up 5 times in the last few hours.

I had my shot list and was confident I could pull it off….with just a little patience and creativity!  I only needed this toddler in 3 of the shots, so I made those the last ones. Getting this little guy without his mother was impossible. He was holding on to her so tightly that we would need a crowbar to separate them.  It was time to get creative.

The shot was the grandchildren with their grandparents.  I had mom sit with her toddler on her lap at the far end next to her older son. I figured I could crop her out of the portrait in postproduction. She was leaning back as far as she possibly could (giving her abs a major workout). Simultaneously, my daughter grabbed a nearby laptop playing the movie The Avengers to distract the boy, careful to hold the computer down low so it wouldn’t be in the shot.  It was working!

Now that things were calming down, I just needed to get his attention. I used everything available to me to get him to look my way. At one point grandma’s puppy was on my head while his dad was behind me doing who knows what to make him laugh – Mission accomplished!

Patience is not only a virtue in this field, it's a MUST.  It was a bit tough, but it was fun.  It is a challenge with a large group portrait to have no blinking eyes or crazy expressions in the bunch. Adding a car sick toddler to the mix was especially challenging.

Just as we had packed up all our lights and equipment, the mom came in to tell me that the little boy was finally happy.

I grabbed my camera and sneaked into the room. He was sitting on a sofa with his sister and older cousin still watching The Avengers.  I clicked quickly and was able to capture the impromptu happy, peaceful moment. On my way out I showed his mom the shots I had just taken, her eyes welled up with tears.

It’s those little moments that I cherish.