*: Escalate 2010 | Tamara Lackey's Talk

Today I'm going to cover some of things I learned from Tamara Lackey at Escalate Live. I have followed Tamara's blog for at least a year now. Tamara is an award winning children's photographer based in North Carolina. Tamara captures these beautiful spontaneous moments and expressions and has a unique shooting style, which is similar to how I work. So I was excited to hear what Tamara had to say!

Tamara actually covered a bit of the technical side of shooting. So for some of you non-photographers this may be a little less than interesting to read. ;)

Something I think all photographers can agree on is that it's important to know your camera and how to get good exposures so that when that perfect moment happens you aren't fiddling with dials and buttons. Too often those neat little moments that occur when people aren't being told what to do are missed because the photographer isn't 1) looking for the shot or 2) trying to make adjustments. So basically the idea is to know your camera and how it works so that shooting is just instinctual. This was a nice little reminder for Tamara to bring up and has encouraged me to always stay on top of understanding how my camera works.

The next thing Tamara covered was lighting. I can't even tell you how many shoots I've gone on where the client mentions that we had great lighting for the shoot. So I feel like it's a pretty safe assumption to say that everyone knows how important lighting is to creating a great picture. However, there is a lot more to the lighting of a picture than a lot of people realize. Here's just a thought on that - Photography is oftentimes called painting with light....if that's the case (and it is) just think how important lighting actually is.

Okay so here's a few thoughts on lighting. In every picture a photographer considers these four sources of light and how to utilize them for your photo:
1) Main Light - In an outdoor setting this would be the sun.
2) Fill Light - For outdoor photos this would actually be the shade. It's what creates depth to an image.
3) Hair Light - This kind of light occurs when someone is backlit. So if the sun was behind you.
4) Ambient Light - This is exactly what it sounds like. Just the natural light that comes into an image.
So in every picture that is taken all four of these kinds of lights need to be considered and utilized properly to create an overall strong shot.

Tamara also covered the six different personality types that are found in children (and sometimes adults). Knowing these different personality types and being able to spot what type of personality your subject has makes it ten times easier to figure out how to interact with them and get those pictures that reflect the child's personality and also make mom happy. So here's a quick run-down of the six different personality types and how to interact with them.
1) The Super Star - these kids want to be photographed and love to "cheese" for the camera. They are up for anything so feel free to experiment
2) The Shy One - This child is much more reserved. Focus on getting beautiful, soft, dreamy images.
3) The Interactive One - This child is incredibly inquisitive and interested. Become someone they can interact with.
4) The One Who Just Needs to Warm Up -Some kids just need time to get adjusted to you. Be sure to give them whatever amount of time they need to feel comfortable with you.
5) The Spirited Child - You can get a wide variety of shots from this child. They may be a bit ornery so be prepared. And always be sure to walk them through everything your doing. This way they feel involved in the whole process and are more prone to play along instead of rebel.
6) The Sick, Tired, Tantrumy Child - Try to avoid a sick child at all costs! Shooting a sick child isn't fun for the photographer or the child. If the child is tired. Try to get them excited about something.

Now for some pics from Tamara's little mini-session: