“By nature, children have such positive energy. Their innocence and their acceptance of the beauty of life is heartwarming,” says Singapore-based photographer Mita Kelder, who gave up fulltime modelling to immerse herself in her other passion – photography. She works with the motto: Give positive vibes to receive positive vibes. This has especially helped her in her dealings with children, because all that a child is looking for during a photography session is to be able to trust the people around him. And making that connection, Mita believes, goes a long way in ensuring the child looks back at the session fondly when he sees the finished product.
“Working with children is not challenging, but fun. You need ‘ice breaking’ tactics, but need to bring these in a natural way,” she says. It’s very important to understand the personality of each child – there’s no one-formula-fits-all here. However, dealing with family dynamics can be a challenge sometimes, says Mita, but the most important part is to stay focused on making the child feel at ease.
Mita Kelder’s top tips on photographing children:
Don’t expect as parent and don’t expect as photograper. When taking photos, you should have no expectation as your expectations probably won’t be met anyway and you will only be disappointed. As you get more and more nervous about capturing that “great” shot, the children will start just feeling the tension and start to act up (kids just seem to have that sixth sense!)
Never say “look at camera and smile”. It is clearly what we want , but it just doesn’t work out and you won’t get a natural photo. Create a cheerful experience, make the shoot like a playdate. The more fun the child has, the more relaxed he/ she will be and the better the shoot will be.
The environment in which the photos are taken is very important too. I have created a very safe, happy and carefree environment at my studio, in which a child dares to be him/herself. I offer a vast variety of sceneries and backgrounds, both inside and outside, creating a diverse photoshoot and all according to the client’s wishes.
I can create many different styles such as romantic/ cute/ rough and rugged/ kampong / jungle/ black and white/ various inside and outside shoots, all the while adjusting to the client’s wishes.
When children’s concentration goes you need to be prepared to divert the child. At such moments, you need to be able to suggest funny little bribes or rewards such as:”if you just hold on for now, you can give mama big tickles,” or “you can stroke the cat” or “pet the chicken”. This will divert the child’s attention, make them think of something funny and quickly snap the photos that you can.
You must remind yourself again that you are not looking to take the perfect photo. What you are doing is looking for a great moment, not the perfect picture. If you have faith in yourself, in creating the perfect moment, the perfect photo will happen too.
As the attention span of children is often limited and as they are not often used to photoshoots, some children can sometimes easily become tired and cranky. You must make your time work for you.
Children are beautiful at any age. With teeth, without teeth, half teeth, loose teeth. Every age has it’s beauty and every age deserves to be recorded.
Just keep shooting those pictures, there will always be brilliant ones and most importantly, have fun doing so!
Text: Lisa Twang/Sandhya Mahadevan / Photos: Mita Kelder Photography