Photography by Avery: Conversations with a 2 year old

I love kids, I love their sweet little voices, their big bright eyes, even their mischievous ways, but I think the thing I love most about them is their honestly. When I'm shooting an adult I could ask them to do something that they may not want to do or wear something they may not want to wear and most of the time they would just say "ok, sounds great!" because adults for the most part want to be polite and not hurt your feelings (well my clients at least, they are the nicest people around). But Mr. J wouldn't play that game. :) We went to a lovely park and took some photo's, then I told mom and dad to take a break on a bench while Mr. J and I played on the playground. Our day went something like this:

me: will you look at the camera for me?
Mr. J: Cover me up with sand! (we were playing in the sand)
me: ok, but will you look at me first and then I'll cover you with sand?
Mr. J: hmmm....ok (glances at me for all of 2 seconds)
me: (I start to cover his legs with sand)

You can't renig on a promise to a 2 year old, even if you did only get 2 seconds of shooting time!

But seriously, I love that about kiddo's! They let you know exactly what makes them happy and what they have absolutely no interest in. My job is to find out what they want to do and try to keep them happy doing it so I can... well get photo's of them in a good mood! And also my job is to trick them into wanting to do what I want them to do. :) Mr. J for example, I wanted him to just look at me, because you can't ask for much else from a 2 year old. So, this first pic was taken while I was telling him a story... that I made up... on the spot...and it wasn't that great... but he didn't call me out on it. :)