Happy Mother’s Day to all of you! I’m on the road traveling back from seeing our daughter graduate from the University of South Dakota. A pretty awesome mother’s day gift if you ask me! This is my hands down favorite session to add to my website – Moms of the year that I have photographed. I know some of them are looking at this and going “Oh no… not THAT photo…” but here is my secret to creating the perfect photo of mom – black and white.
I know that most of the mom’s I capture are with their senior. When mom comes out to the session – it’s a weekend, she’s taking the day off – she’s along for the ride (or the taxi driver). She’s worked a full week or better yet – it’s the work week and she just got off work and in her head after this session there’s dinner to be made, errands to run and a gazillion other things to do before the night is through. This session isn’t about her and she’s not ready for it. But guess what? That last shot, when I know I’m done with the session is when I say “I have one more shot… Mom? Can you come here?” and she protests, claims her hair is a mess – she’s wearing yogo pants for crying out loud and fights me. Not a big fight but she does. I get the Senior to hug up on her – boys will always joking choke them first and then a loving embrace will ensue and snap. Got it. Done.
What kind of photographer am I that I would do this to my client? Am I insane?
I probably am.
But here’s the secret – when I edit that photo, I spend a little extra time of making mom look good and then I make that photo a black and white. Why? It pulls all the color out and makes you look at the faces in the photo. That drab t-shirt, yoga pants, no make up on the face is all gone because it’s in black and white. It’s now timeless. It’s a moment that I captured of a senior who is about to fly the coop and I got him/her to stand still long enough to hug her. Sometimes that’s all that we want. A hug.
And you know what? 50% of the time when mom comes in to see the session it’s the first photo she wants to buy. The other 50% of the time it’s the senior (mainly boys) who will ask for a copy for themselves.
Happy Mother’s Day Moms – you all have done wonderful things with your children…
Seniors:
Family:
