I Love What Most Photographers HATE!

At this point, my oddities should not surprise me :) I've always been somewhat strange and it has shown up in my photography business in what I like to do. Some of my favorite things to do or photograph are things that so many other photographers absolutely dread or strongly dislike doing.

Give Me All The Little Kids
I wanted to do portrait and family photography primarily because I LOVE KIDS!!! The smaller the better :) And so many photographers think I'm insane! That's why God makes us all different, am I right?

Little kids are certainly a challenge. I'm not even going to pretend that they are easy to photograph but the challenges are so worth it, in my opinion. Can they be frustrating? Absolutely! Am I often exhausted at the end of a session with little kids? You bet! But I have so much fun in the meantime! With little kids, what I have found is that you have to hold the session plans very loosely. You might not get the photos you wanted to get, but you get what the child will give you that day. "Success" with little kids needs to be redefined. "Success" is that you got photos of the child as they are. Maybe there were no photos of them looking at the camera and smiling

And All The Large Families
When it comes to families, I absolutely LOVE doing large family sessions. Typically that shows up in doing extended family sessions. If I were a wedding photographer, my favorite parts of the day would be details, portraits, and family formals!

Photographing large families can be somewhat chaotic, to be sure. There are a lot of moving pieces. I honestly cannot tell you what exactly it is about large families that I love so much. I think it has something to do with the legacy. I've done several photos for people where we had the parents, their grown adult children, and then grandchildren. You can't capture the wisdom and love that has been passed down but just having so many people in one photo says something about the marriage the parents had and the way they raised their kids. It so special to see families who like to be together. Does that make any sense?

Editing Photos
The last thing I love is editing. Again, there are days when I want to chuck my computer out the window, but most days, I love watching an image come together on the screen. It's amazing to see the vision I had when I took the photo appear with some clicks and slides! It's so fun!


Photographers don't really hate these things, but I've never met another photographer who has said they are excited to get an inquiry for a large family session or cannot wait to go home and edit. Sometimes I have to force myself to not start editing right away! As odd as it sounds, I think I like these things so much because they challenge me! I get to learn and grow and develop as a photographer in so many ways. The process can be frustrating at times, but when I win, it's a celebration!

 
Photo by Jay-Pee Peña 🇵🇭 on Unsplash