kids portraits – Rob Lamb Photography

March 14, 2019March 14, 2019

The Right Stuff

Times were tough as a 1980’s Lego Spaceman. Long before Benny shot to cinematic fame, mini-figures where out there surviving against all odds.

In those days, if your head got stuck on tight, taking it off with someone’s teeth was the only way to go. And you proudly bore the scars from finally getting it off.

Fun Fact: in the 1980s we didn’t actually have blue spacemen on this side of the Atlantic: only red and white.

Testing the macro set-up for a product shoot next week: Nikon D850; 105f2.8 macro @ f5.6; single SB-800 flash off-camera with shoot-through umbrella; SB-700 Master unit; Nikon CLS. All Manual.

March 22, 2018March 22, 2018

First Communions 2018 – Studio Sesssions Available

We are delighted to announce that we will again be running our very popular Communion Mini Sessions on the following days:

Saturday 21st April 2018
Saturday 28th April 2018
Saturday 26th May 2018

This year the sessions will be held in the Scout Hall, next to Ballinlough Community Centre and the Tennis Club.

We have some bookings already but there is still availability on all these days.

The sessions will run as previous years with each family being allocated a 15 minute timeslot with sessions running from around 12:30 onwards.

Call us now on 087 683 8511 to make a booking.

More info on Communion Sessions and Packages are available at https://roblambphoto.com/?page_id=789

July 14, 2017

Irish Youth Dance Festival 2017

I had the pleasure of photographing the New Moon Dance company at the Irish Youth Dance Festival in Dun Laoghaire, last weekend. As usual Tina’s dancers were amazing.

It was the only (brief) rehearsal they got on the stage and it was during lighting setup so let’s just say there wasn’t a lot of time – or light – and what light there was got better as the lighting guy worked things out.

September 27, 2016

First Holy Communion 2017

Wow, First Holy Communion Sessions for 2017 are already booking up.

In particular we have very limited availability for 6th May 2017 and 20th May 2017 is practically full. There are sessions available in the gallery for the other dates in May.

So give me a call if you have your Communion Date: 087 683 8511

Of course, you can still book a session for a different day – it’s lovely to come in on another day and spend a little more time on your photos. The package pricing is the same.

March 24, 2016

Incentives (Draft 2)

I knew this would be a difficult subject to address. Draft 1 kinda turned into a rant so it’s consigned to the WordPress ‘permanent draft’ folder.

So let’s start again.

My objective for all my family photo sessions is that everyone enjoys it. It’s simple really: if we can make sure that the whole experience is a very positive one then the photos will reflect that. As much as possible is done to make that happen – choosing a good location, timing etc – and from the moment we meet it should be obvious that this isn’t something that anyone needs to get stressed about: we’re just going to go out into the Park and take some photos.

I find that kids react to their environment. If everyone is cool and easy-going they’ll relax and be themselves. They’ll start playing and I’ll be able to watch them, encourage them, they’ll start to trust me and take some really lovely pictures of them.

It’s easy to go in to a photo session with expectations of how it’ll be. In reality you might not have done this before. I think some parents worry that they might not get the images they expect. Remember that all my work is shot with ‘normal’ people. The pics on the web site are kids just like yours.

I’ve done this before. You’re in good hands. I understand that kids need some time to get used to me, the camera and having their photos taken. They need time to feel comfortable, reassurance that they’re not going to get into trouble for doing or not doing something so they can relax and play.

So don’t panic. Relax and enjoy your kids and let me handle the photos. Don’t ask the kids to ‘smile’ or ‘be good’ because those terms mean nothing in the context of the photo session.

It’s not uncommon before or during a session for some parents to get so worried that their kids won’t ‘smile’ or ‘be good’ that they offer a reward for doing just that. I have found that overall that’s not helpful – mostly because it’s too easy to get wrong. Kids can become so focussed on the reward that it upsets the session.

Equally they can be so unmoved by the reward that they are impervious to it’s charms and parents are tempted to escalate the incentive (or even turn to punishments). In this case we’re now fighting and the chance of pictures of a relaxed kid smiling are reduced.

I’ll try to illustrate:

Dad: Now you be good for the man
Kid: ????
Dad: Smile now
Kid pulls weird grin
Dad: Not that smile, your real smile
Kids weird grin just gets weirder
Dad: If you give me a big, real smile I’ll give you a treat
Kid just tries harder at the really big weird grin
Dad: No, that’s not it
Kid is now upset because they failed and won’t get the treat
Dad: Just smile for Daddy
A cycle of weird grins, Dad gets frusrated, Kids gets sadder cos Dad’s not happy. Eventually Dad notices Kid is sad and gives the treat to make it better. Kid thinks he did good and it’s all over. Until:

Dad: so where’s my smile?
Round we go again – Kid not sure what he did last time for the treat so goes through grinning-crying routine again.

But we still don’t have a photo.

Now these are hypothetical. In reality, most Dads are Messers at heart (for their own kids at least) and when they realise they you’re giving them the best excuse ever to just kick back and enjoy their family we get what we came for.

So, in summary:

Relax
Treat the session as just a normal thing to do
Don’t offer incentives or negative repercussions for behaviour
You can reward once we’re done but don’t mention it during the session
If your kids aren’t smiling then say or do something that will make them smile or laugh (just make sure I’m ready to photograph the reaction)
Follow my lead for helping me get a good reaction from them

March 23, 2016

Halloween Revisited

Our Halloween Dress Up raised a mighty €700 for our two chosen Charities: Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumin and the Ronald McDonald House.

Time has flown since last October’s Halloween Dress up and I just realised I didn’t get to post a follow-up as we ran through a very busy December and January.

A big Thank You to everyone who called by and took part. We had great fun as always!!!

October 21, 2015

Halloween Dress Up for Crumlin 2015

Our fourth Annual Halloween Dress Up for Crumlin is on this Friday. 23rd October.

We’ll be here from 10:30 to 4pm with the Den all set up for anyone who wants to call in for a Free Photo.

So bring the kids in their Halloween Fancy Dress. We can take some photos with the pumpkins and our cuddly pet spider and they’ll all get a print. There’s no charge for the photos or the prints but we’ll be collecting for Crumlin Children’s Hospital and the Ronald McDonald House.

October 5, 2015

Preparing for your Family Photo Session

So we’ve booked the session, decided where to go and now you’re wondering what you need to do before we meet for the photo session.

I’ll contact you shortly before the session to confirm the booking. I’d normally leave that until a day or so before the actual session so we can get a more reliable look at the weather forecast in case there’s anything nasty definitely headed our way. All being well you’ll get a text or a call from me to confirm time and place (but if at anytime you want to check, just give me a buzz).

Similarly if someone’s sick or something else comes up just call me and we can re-schedule the session. I want to get the best images and that’s not going to happen if someone – especially a young child – is suffering with something.

Clothing

RLR_4524 — Lots of girls want to choose their own clothes – it’s part of who they are

The most common question I get asked about is clothing. There’s no absolute rules here but there are a few things to bare in mind:

Everyone needs to be comfortable and free to play. So warm but not too snugged up, layers they can take off if they’re hot and something handy to put on if it gets cold.
Cute hats are generally good – especially if they’re used to them – but try to avoid anything that will hide their faces in the pictures: hats with a brim, scalves, body warmers with high necks etc.
Nothing too precious. They need to be able to play freely without you or them worrying about getting a bit dirty.
While the ‘white shirt / t-shirt’ image is popular in the US, it can be quite hard on most Irish kids’ complexions – especially at this time of year. It’s also going to be the first thing to show dirt (and it may be too cool in Autumn as well).
In general remember that we’re here to get pictures of you all and your faces are what we’re most interested in. So avoid anything that’s going to compete with your expressions visually: heavily branded clothes, tops with characters on them (especially faces), very distracting patterns etc.
Brightly coloured clothing can work well in the forest but make sure it’s not too much (or clashing). Again, the problem comes when the colours take away from the kids expressions.

Body warmer are handy but watch out for high necks that will hide their chins — Body warmers are handy but watch out for high necks that will hide their chins

For most people the session is about the whole family but there are parents who don’t want to come into the photos. That’s a bit of shame but it’s OK. Even so you might be asked to support your children getting up onto a tree or something or just holding their hand at some point so even if you don’t want to do a full family photo, make sure that you’re wearing something you don’t mind being photographed in (even if it’s your back or your arm).

RLQ_5506 — Mom and Dad need to get in on the act too!

Incentives

This is generally not something you think about before the session but getting this wrong in the middle of the day can make things harder than perhaps they need to be. It’s often occurred to me that I should have talked to parents about incentives before the session because they have an significant impact on childrens’ behaviour (for good or for bad).

There’s actually quite a lot of psycology in taking pictures. Offering a reward for ‘good behaviour’ with small kids can be hard to get right (and easy to get wrong). It tends to work once or twice for a short period and you never quite plan for what happens next.

In fact, this is a big subject and I’m going to need a separate post but suffice it to say here that you should think more about positive re-enforcements (“how nice this is going to be”) and distractions (“what’s over there?”) than offering a reward for ‘being good’. I’ll be doing my best to make the whole session fun and hopefully they’ll be happy and playful without the promise of a reward.

Food

You know your own kids. If they don’t eat between meals, they’ll be fine. If they snack then yes, bring food. Something small, clean, easy / quick to eat and not too sugary. Bite-sized snacks that aren’t rewards are ideal.

October 1, 2015October 1, 2015

Where to go in Cork

In the last article I looked in a general way at where to go for your location session. If nothing comes to you yet then here are a few more specific ideas for where to go in Cork:

Currabinny Woods (51.812170, -8.304958) is an excellent location for family photos. It has everything: it’s compact, good parking and not too far away. It has plenty of options for kids of all ages in most weather conditions.

Fitzgerald’s Park (51.8962438,-8.4958268) is another good location and very handy from the city. We normally start at the Museum end and work our way through the park. Lots of options here including the trees, stumps, sculptures, benches etc. They new playground is a lot more photogenic but because there are usually so many other kids there we leave that to the end after the session (sometimes it can be used as an incentive if you’re careful with it – more on incentives later)

The Japanese Gardens, Ballinlough (51.8863896,-8.4489809) may not be the most selubrious location but it’s very handy for the office and the lower part of the park offers enough options for a good family photo shoot. There’s a nice bit of cover there, benches, trees and the quarry as backdrop so it has worked very well for me on many occassions.

The Lough (51.885795, -8.488243) is more limited in terms of stuff to sit, stand or lean on but there’s enough there to work with and the Lough itself looks nice as a background. The far end is probably nicer than the Hawthorn end but we usually stroll around and see what works best. The playground is very bright and can be busy for photos.

Ballincollig Regional Park (51.890118,-8.61589) is a bit further out of town and quite a large area. The area closest to the car park is pretty open but there are areas near the river and down the far end that could be used. It’s probably more suitable to older kids who don’t mind walking further.

Faran Woods (51.8888995,-8.75678) is even further out. It’s a good location but there are a some of things to watch out for (apart from having to pay for the Car Park!). The playground is on the way in so you can get a bit stuck there if you don’t manage things properly. It’s a nice wooden playground but there’s more opportunities to be had in the woods themselves.

Rostellen Woods (51.8446453,-8.1904122) is out the other side of the city but handy for Midleton or East Cork in general. It’s a nice compact woods with options for views of the harbour is your kids can walk that far. The ruins on the shore also offer some nice options for posing and backgrounds to add to the forest pictures.

Killeagh Woods (51.9427735,-7.9922103) is even further out East of the City but is a really nice compact woods with lots going on there to work with: a stream, bridges, woods, benches, all that. Take the left behind the Thatched Cottage and left again to go up along the river.

Fota Gardens (51.8927924,-8.3058249) is a great location for photos with plenty of options for playing and forming informal groups: house steps, carved seats, fernery, rose gardens, orangery etc Technically you may need permission to shoot in the grounds but I’ve never had a problem there. Much of the Arboretum is evergreen so it works well all year round but if you’re looking for Autumn colour, it’s not your location of choice.