Photography and our Puppets
Our photographer Philippe Flatt talks about working with children and using our lambskin toys and puppets to make every photo shoot entertaining and successful.
Gaining Trust
One of the most rewarding aspects of children's photography is gaining the trust of your subject. Capturing an expression of joy really melts a parents' heart.
Children often enter the studio feeling shy and somewhat timid. Others may appear to be confident but are hiding their nerves behind cheesy "camera smiles" that are not really genuine expressions of joy.
In order to be able to build a relationship with a young infant or a child, you really need to engage them in something that sparks their interest. Toys and games are often helpful. Interactive toys with a story or personality are even better than a toy that will just absorb the child's attention away from everything else that is going on around them.
Create a Dialogue
It's easy to create a dialogue or story behind each of these toys and puppets because they appear to have a personality and are expressive when moved around in your hands. The toddlers and children are then enthusiastic about contributing and creating their own dialogue resulting in a confident and engaged child who genuinely has a reason to trust the person photographing them.
When working with many families including babies, toddlers and kids, it has been wonderful and sometimes emotional capturing the joy they experience with the beautiful Flat Friends lambskin toys and animal hand puppets. As we progress through a photo shoot, it has been great to see how the children become more curious and inventive with the puppets. Younger babies just love the way they look and feel.
Make It Fun
As a photographer I can even use the puppets myself to entertain the children during a photo session and watch those fake cheesy smiles be replaced with expressions of excitement and elation. It really has made the task of photographing Flat Friends toys and the children playing with them fun.
More about Philippe Flatt
We highly recommend Philippe for all your photography requests. For more information and to view his other beautiful work, visit imagetechnique.com.au/