PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: SHOOT CHILDREN WITH STEALTH

Child Photography takes patience; more patience than Wildlife Photography if you ask me.
The secret to capturing a great photo is to use stealth.
Now, I'm not going to try and give you tips on how Studio Photographers shoot kids, that's a whole different form of art.

I'm talking about catching candid shots of the little critters when they're outdoors and um, pretty much like wildlife because that's what I do.
It's just children are a little more of a challenge at times.

Like a bird may look right into your lens when you're composing a shot but, he probably won't skrunch up his face and stick his tongue out at you.
Children, well, they do whatever kids will do.

Get them used to seeing you around with a camera.
Point it at them enough so they become accustomed to it.
Make sure there's nothing hanging or dripping from their noses, no chocolate on their faces.
Walk around pretending you're shooting other stuff.
Soon, they'll think you're ignoring them.
They'll start ignoring you back. That's where the stealth part comes in.

When they act natural, which children have a habit of doing, sometimes, move to where the light is best for you, frame the shot carefully and quietly: SHOOT THE CHILDREN WITH STEALTH !

Green Tea

Here, Doc caught me shooting Green Tea fields. Awhile back someone did an article with photos on the tea workers in China. Then a few months later, I saw another photographer do a piece on the tea in Korea; really beautiful photography.

Well, I happen to have a sister-in-law who has a job working with the green tea, right here in Okinawa. So, I decided, that's what I'm going to do; a whole year's worth of shooting tea. Not just the plants, I want to get the whole story, from the care and feeding, cultivating, harvesting, processing, curing, packaging, advertising, drying, whatever else they do to get your tea from the fields to the cup on your kitchen table. That's my plan.

This kind of story and photography, you can't just do overnight. It's more like one of those things that could take years. Little bit at a time, shoot baby tea plants, come back a month later and check on their progress. Get the stages of growth. Shoot under different lighting conditions. Catch sunrise and sunsets over the tea fields, people cultivating the plants, harvesting the tea and finding out what they do with it afterwards. Maybe get some photos of the people actually doing the stuff, give a helping hand, eat what they eat for lunch and find out what they drink at night. That's how you get the whole story; just a little bit at a time.

Well, I had this shot of me taken in June of 2008 and I'm still working on my tea story. I've only been out to the tea fields five or six times and still haven't caught the sunrise or sunset, but I will. I'll catch them in the perfect light, catch the sun, the ocean and the blue skies. Maybe even get some shots during a typhoon. I want my story to be better than the other people's tea field stories. I want the owner of the tea fields to order a 4X6 foot wall mural from me when he sees my best shot. He already ordered one from me and I haven't even shot it yet !