Too used to following the rules.




So I had a wonderful group of young ladies in a studio for a portrait session the other day. They were 11/12 years old, a group of lovely, bubbly girls celebrating a birthday with their parents in tow. At that age you're not sure how children are. On the cusp of being a teenager but still very much a child you don't know what to expect. After getting very giddy over make up with my wonderful make up artist and other teenage-girl type things I've never completely understood we had some fun shooting. Being young they're very inquisitive and it wasn't long before they wanted to have a go with the camera. I've no problem with that so while I took the weight of the 70-200mm 2.8 I let the girls snap off a few from each other. It immediately raised the mood of the studio and made everyone a little more comfortable but most importantly it produced a few interesting results. I let a Nikon D90 with a 14-24mm 2.8 loose around the room while I continued taking some singles as a test to see what they got. I'm sure Mum had a go too, I think she took the one at the top :)

Now don't get me wrong. I know they're not in focus, and the lighting was set up by me, and I've added a little colour but the framing is something else. I see a lot of these pano tilt/shift type photography shoots getting popular. To make the shift work the framing is always way off the rules and quite different. I enjoy them. I'm beginning to merge this style into my wedding photography but it isn't coming easy. I'm very used to framing shots in the 'correct(ish)' way but the girls, whose minds are relatively untainted from the rules of photography, have produced the little peaches above. I don't know if it was by accident or if their innocence allowed them to see something more than us photographers stuck in our ways - but I do know I have to break my mind away from the rules if I'm going to keep up with the current wedding photography trends. I'm scared to post my images from the session now. I suppose I have to. I haven't finished viewing all 700 of them yet so when I've finished I'll see how mine match up. Would love to hear what others think, leave a comment below :) 

Thanks :D
Paul