PHOTOGRAPHING CHILDREN PHOTO WORKSHOP

Chapter 7. EVOKING EXPRESSION AND EMOTION

• Observing Emotions and Moods

• Revealing the Eyes: Gateway to the Soul

• Involving Your Subjects with Nature

• Studying Body Language, Gestures, and Movement

• Telling a Story with Your Photographs

• The Psychology of Photographing Children

As you look through photographs, whether they are your own family photographs, a friend's collection, or even magazine images, you intuitively flip through them at a certain pace. Every so often you might come across one that stops you, slows you down, and invites you to explore or engage more deeply. It might make you smile, think for a minute, or take you back to a place in time. What a wonderful exercise this is to encourage your own observation skills and to see what pulls you in. The chances are very good that the photograph that stops you or slows you down contains something profound or alluring in the expression, mood, and emotion.

This is particularly true in children's photography. Children's expressions and emotions are usually close to the surface and readily available. As a children's photographer, you just need to be there, to witness, and to capture what is offered so freely.

The great advantage of digital photography over film is that you can be spontaneous and capture special moments and a child's natural enthusiasm as in 7-1 and 7-2 without the high cost of processing. This technology offers you the opportunity ...