my clients came to santa monica and all i got was adopted

Being asked to shoot another photographer is quite an honor. Being asked to shoot a photographer you’ve never met, or even been very close with, is double the honor. But spending an hour shooting another photographer (and her parents) and receiving an honorary adoption certificate in the mail a few days later? That’s pretty much unheard of.

Nicole is a photographer back in NC, and she specializes in portraits. When she was making a trip out to Cali to see her parents, she asked me about shooting the three of them. Her parents, she said, were super dodgy about getting their pictures taken, so it might not be easy. Aha, I said to myself (yes, I actually say “aha!” to myself when it’s warranted), this group sounds perfect for my Spy Session!

A Spy Session (btw, I have trademarked that so don’t even think you’re going to use it)is when only one person of the group knows that their photos are being taken. I basically follow, (ok, some say stalk) you around for an hour and take pictures of you just being yourself. The person who is “in the know” helps keep people pointed my way (which is so valuable because people will generally turn their back on a camera they don’t know); they’ll get everyone into little photo ops (like the hat stand…brilliant, Nic!), and just generally make my job a lot easier.

Then after I’ve stalked you for a sufficient amount of time we officially meet, and we do a little bit of a regular portrait session. Check it out:

It’s loads of fun and helps alleviate the jitters that so many people get when someone is trying to take a “natural” portrait. It’s really awesome, though not for everyone, because, you know, the pictures are not posed. You’re shown in all your bad posture, pulling your pants up, smooshing your hair and all those other things that you’d rather not have photographed.

BUT…in the context of the entire shoot, seeing yourself really natural, really being yourself with the ones you love is actually quite charming.

I got this idea loads of years ago when my daughter was little. We had some portraits taken at the local bank (yeah, you know where this is going) and they were awful: really faked and cheesy and just, just terrible. Bummer. I’d always thought to myself, “I’d love to hire a photographer to just follow us around for awhile and take some really great pictures of us just being together.” So now that I’m actually the photographer, this is something I can offer my clients. Neat, huh?

So everything went so well, I got some great photos, but best of all I have three new lifelong friends (and an adopted family)! How awesome is this? I get Facebook messages from “Maw,” and it’s so freakin’ awesome I can’t even tell you. And I hear that “Dad” talked about me  nonstop for the rest of their visit, and it’s so wonderful and sweet and so not cheesy. It’s the reason I became a photographer in the first place. To make people happy.

The extra family, well that’s just icing on the cake. And c’mon, we all know how we feel about cake.