Studio Portraits of Your Kids - Yes or No?
Amy over at Shooting the Kids wrote a great post debating the benefits of having portrait studio-style shots of your kids. Apparently, people have strong feelings about this! Who knew? I really liked her pros and cons approach, and think the shots of her daughter, Sophia, are darling.
I haven’t had any portrait studio-style shots taken of Chloe, but there is something appealing about the idea of a uniform portrait every year or so to allow you to examine the details of how your child’s face and body are changing. Close-up shots of the child’s face are great because you can see how much he/she has changed in such a short period of time…
My friend Kendra takes a family portrait every year with all family members wearing white t-shirts and jeans. I love that. And I saw an article in Parents or Parenting about a woman who photographed her daughter in a vintage bathing suit every year on her birthday from age 1-15. The pictures were beautiful and it was a great way to showcase how this little baby grew into a young woman.
I have a whole bunch of passport photos of my parents, brother and me taken over many years. The uniformity of the shots really appeals to me. I even have ones of my dad when he was very young and in the Navy, and my mom in 1969 with a headband and flipped hair. I want to have them framed side-by-side with shots of Clark (my brother) at age 7 and me at age 16. Boy did I have bad hair that year! I’ll see about having them scanned so you can all see how cool these shots are.
School portraits have the same kind of thing going on. Missing front teeth, cheezy grins and goofy clothes that will someday look so dated are all part of the appeal of these shots.
So, back to the question at hand - studio portraits, yes or no? I think I’m too lazy to truck over to Sears or JC Penney or Baby’s R Us with Chloe all dolled up to have pictures taken when my camera sits here next to me at the desk. But it does make me want to create a longterm photo project with uniform images so I can someday frame them side-by-side when Chloe goes off to college (yikes!! I soooo can’t think about that right now!). So thanks for the inspiration, Amy!
Responses and Conversations
Steph - I’m glad those portraits of Sophia inspired you, cheesy backdrops and all! I totally agree - I had no idea people had such strong opinions about this topic. I suggested it not as a cop-out to taking tons of photos of your kids yourself, but, like you suggest, as more of an easy way for parents who are not as photographically inclined to easily document growth from year to year.
I like your framed passport photos idea, too! Kind of along the same idea, Chris and I thought it would be fun to start taking periodic family shots at those photo booths at the mall. Kitschy and sentimental at the same time!
Comment by Amy Frazier on October 22nd, 2006 at 11:19 am
[...] In addition to Amy’s and Stephanie’s articles about taking pictures of every phase of your kid’s life, your home (or homes) that you’ve lived in can bring back many cherished memories. [...]
Comment by slightly out of focus - » Good-bye, Old friend… on October 24th, 2006 at 6:32 pm
I take a photo every month of my little boy, and over the last 19 months you can see just how much he has changed….i sit him on a blue rug for all the shots
Comment by Kim on January 29th, 2007 at 3:53 pm