Today’s children’s portraits were captured at my home in Sonoma, California. These photos feature my little critter who just celebrated his third birthday! This photoshoot marks another milestone in my ongoing project to document my son’s growth through photography. As a photographer dedicated to Sonoma County children’s portraits, I cherish the opportunity to capture such milestones, reflecting the swift and beautiful journey of childhood. As all parents know, our kids grow up in the blink of an eye, making these moments fleeting yet precious. Amidst the daily hustle and joy of parenting, it’s essential to pause and capture these memories, creating lasting snapshots of their ever-changing lives.
When photographing my son, I strive to create more than just pictures; I aim to capture a piece of our family’s story. By focusing on classic lighting and minimalistic settings, and opting for simple attire, my goal is to craft portraits that feel timeless. This method ensures that the images hold their emotional value and authenticity for years to come, standing as a testament to the beautiful, albeit rapid, journey of childhood.
These portraits are not just photos; they are tangible connections to the past, reminders of the small details that might fade from memory but remain vivid in these images. They are a celebration of growth, change, and the enduring bond of family. As I share these moments with you, I hope they inspire you to capture your own children’s journey, preserving the ephemeral magic of childhood in its purest form.
Sonoma County Children’s Portrait Studio
During the first year of his life, I tried very hard to capture him at least once every month or two because of how fast his features changed. After his second birthday, my goal now is to capture him under high quality conditions twice a year. As part of my dedication to creating Sonoma County children’s portraits I recommend you capture portraits of your kids at least this often to fully capture them as they grow. Then, once my son’s rate of growth slows a little more I plan to reduce the frequency down to about a once a year where I’ll capture him under quality light… If he’ll let me.
The portraits featured in this post are what I call “studio style” portraits. I capture these “studio style” portraits on location for families in Sonoma County. If you want to learn more about my requirements for on location studio style portrait sessions, you can check out this post to see how much space I need if you want me to capture portraits like these for your kid.
Creating Timeless Sonoma County Children’s Portraits
One of my primary goals when I capture these kinds of children’s portraits is to try and future proof them as best as I can. I don’t want these portraits to be dated by some fleeting trend that makes them embarrassing as time goes on (like 80’s glamor photos or something).
To ensure timelessness, it’s important to make sure children are lit with classical light patterns. Sometimes I get really fancy with this idea like I did with these Hollywood style portraits I did for my son 2 years ago. For this set though, I chose to keep things simple with a one light set up. So although these portraits aren’t as elaborately lit, I’ll bet that they’ll still age well over time. This is because the light pattern is classic, and is still prominently used in movies made today.
In addition to classic lighting, another way I like to future proof children’s portraits is to photograph them with simplistic clothing or in just a diaper. This sounds strange at first, but you’ll notice that both in these photos and the other Hollywood style portraits mentioned earlier that he’s just wearing some shorts or his diaper.
The reason for this is because clothes are the easiest way to visually date photos. When I go back and look at these portraits 20 or even 30 years from now, it will be much harder to tell what era these photos were captured in because there aren’t any clothes or background details to date the photo by the fashions of the present.
The idea is that great photos taken in the 30’s are still great photos today. My primary goal when I capture portraits of my son is to not hate what I captured as time goes on and styles change. Capturing portraits of him while he’s young like this is a fleeting moment in time and not something I can go back redo even a year from now. This is why I try my best to capture these portraits as cleanly and as timelessly as possible.
Children’s Portrait Collage Frame
I love all of the different expressions he gave me when I was photographing him for this session! This set begs to be put into a 9 image collage frame or something like that. These images are more powerful together than any one of them is alone.
How would you display these? Give this post a like below if you think a collage frame would be perfect! If you can think of a better way to display these, let me know your ideas in the comments!
