Here comes that disclaimer again! I am definately not a childrens photographer. That’s not to say that I can’t photograph children, I just choose not to in favour of photographing weddings. I don’t take on any new portrait work (with the exception of newborns - must be less than 2 weeks old!), and these days you’ll only find me doing portraits for either my wedding clients, or for people I know. There are two main reasons. First of all, I’m so busy with weddings, I don’t have time for the extra workload. Maybe as I gradually start to shoot less weddings this may change, but for now it’s where I’m at. Secondly (and probably the more important reason) is I’m not good with kids. There, I said it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a monster or anything, I like kids, I am just not good at relating to them and bringing the best out of them. You know how dogs know if you’re a dog person, and cat’s know if you’re a cat person? It’s the same with me and kids. They just seem to look at me and it’s like they say to themselves “Uh oh. The dragon lady is here”.

With that being said, early last month, I headed over to see an old colleague of mine, Naomi, and to shoot her two kids. Naomi and I used to work together at Telstra many moons ago. I was there when she had her first child, Cohen, and has since gone on to complete her family with a little girl called Aspen. These two were hard work. Cute as buttons, but hard work. It wasn’t until Naomi came up with a great plan to make them laugh and squeal with excitement, that we managed to get them to come out of their shell and get some great reactions. Still though, I did find myself wondering how portrait photographers, or even parents for that matter, manage to cope.

First up was Cohen…

And then the adorable little Aspen…