Bellen Drake Photography

http://blog.littleonebooks.com/?p=339

by Suzanne Beal

Picture This: Kids and photography

It’s not easy to get the perfect shot. In fact it can be downright daunting. I grew up with a father who as a professional photographer tried to capture our family events for posterity. Most of my memories revolve around us being posed to look as natural as possible. We look anything but.

Now as a parent, I’m pretty camera happy myself. And I want images that capture a bit of the spontaneity that seems to be the benchmark of childhood. Occasionally my point and click method results in a timely shot – that perfect smile or gesture so closely associated with a young one. But more often than not, it results in inadvertently lopping off random body parts and creating indistinct forms that incite more candid viewers to ask if that blur in the background is our cat or our kid. Turns out that getting a carefree image requires significantly more than mere chance.

In the good old days we’d pay for the film to be developed. But with the arrival of the digital camera, development costs for film are nil. What’s to keep us in check? We can click to our hearts’ content, taking as many images as we want, the only downside being a wade through countless results in search of a Kodak moment (which may or may not surface).

Photo courtesy Bellen Drake

This is where the professionals come in. Parents often contact Seattle photographer Bellen Drake to take over the photographing of their youngsters. They want their child’s personality to shine through without an obviously staged shot. Drake drives to her clients’ homes because, as a mother, she knows that “a two-month old can be hard to get out of the house.” But it also allows her to see what children are like in their own element. “At first kids are generally pretty quiet,” Drake explains. “Then they warm up to me and want to show me their toys. And then, hopefully, they start to ignore me.” Ultimately Drake’s goal is the creation of a photograph that feels as if she’d never been there at all.

Photo courtesy Bellen Drake

With all the work involved in capturing an image that feels effortless, putting children behind the lens – rather than in front of it – can be tempting. Apparently capturing what you see is more than just fun. It’s educational. At least that’s what Sesame Street must have thought when they developed Sesame Street Snapshots, an online game that allows kids to click, shoot and print an image from the screen. My son Hugo clicks willy-nilly and there is a snapshot with Elmo’s head halved in two. “Great picture,” cheers the computer. The video Elmo’s World: Summer Vacation offers a fun lesson in how cameras have evolved and how they function, along with a visit to the beach and some sensory experiences involving sand and skin.

I have embarrassingly few photos of Hugo on view at our home. What I do have are the photos that he’s taken – the objects that he mysteriously deems worthy of savoring. In a way they capture more of who he is than my photos of him ever could, especially one of a single blurry limb. Or is that the cat?

—Suzanne

Tags: camera, photography, picture, Sesame Street

This entry was posted on Friday, July 30th, 2010 at 12:56 pm and is filed under Features, Interviews, Suzanne, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.