How Wonderful it is to Create Mother and Son Portraits
Much of what I do has been about babies and little girls and recently I’ve begun encouraging mothers to be included in portraits with their daughters as I find it is so important to capture the mother/child relationship, or father/child relationship for that matter. It was posting one such image that attracted this next client and got her to book in with me as she wanted something to mark her son’s 21st year with a memory to cherish before he goes off to live his life as an adult.
I often feel that these are more for the children to appreciate later in life and I tell my clients this when they are hesitant to have their portrait done. I think its hard to ever see our parents as anything but old because to us they are always old. When we are little 30 is ancient. Then as we grow, whatever age they are still seems so far away to us. So parents are just always old. Having a special portrait will serve as a wonderful reminder of an earlier time in our lives and help us remember our parents were young once too.
So I was thrilled when I was contacted by this lovely woman wanting a portrait with her son, giving me something different and exciting to create. It also makes me appreciate the role I have in other people’s lives. I am giving them something they will look back on with great appreciation, perhaps for 50 years or more and I think that is pretty incredible.
Although she came to me specifically for a Mother/son shoot I wanted to do more than that. I am loving working with young adults so I suggested he have portraits done of himself too. As always I asked about his hobbies to see if there was something I could incorporate into the portraits. I was thrilled to hear he plays American football at university.
We started off the session first with the mother and son portraits so that Mum could then sit back and relax and enjoy watching her son. I do this with all these sorts of sessions because I know its usually the adult who feels most anxious about the experience. Then we moved on to some casual portraits in an outfit of his choosing. I always make clothing recommendations though so that we have something appropriate for portraits. Avoiding bold patterns and big logos is essential as these are distracting in a classical portrait such as these. I also tend to go with dark clothing for darker backgrounds, as you see here, and lighter clothing for light backgrounds.
And then we moved on to the fun stuff. I absolutely loved photographing this young man in his football uniform. He was at ease and I was seeing stuff through the lens that just made me want to keep shooting.
This young man was such a joy to work with. I’ve been surprised at how much boys can enjoy a photo shoot. Its not a horrible chore they are doing just to make their mothers happy. They genuinely have a good experience and appreciate the results at the end of it, especially when we can create such wonderful portraits as these. Again, another memory that will mean so much in years to come. How proud will he be to show his own children these portraits.
I had a couple of instances in my life when I was due to go and have my portrait done but for whatever reason I backed out. I’ve always regretted that because I have so few portraits of myself. I would have loved to share portraits from my youth with my family. I don’t want to be forever old in my daughters eyes.
This really is such an important experience that results in something so valuable. I know we all have cameras, and very convenient ones at that. But are you producing the sort of portrait that can give you such a clear memory of the people in your life? I know formal portraits are not everyone’s cup of tea. I hope I am showing the sort of work that is making you think that maybe its time to get some done. And if its not my work that strikes your fancy there are many photographers out there with so many different styles so I am sure you can find one that suits you. I urge you to consider making the investment. This really is something that increases in value over time. We can’t say that about much anymore.
If you have a young adult you’d like to capture in a similar way please get in touch. I’d love to hear from you. There is never any obligation to book, if you’d just like to meet to discuss some ideas before deciding. My contact details are below. I look forward to hearing from you.
