I always thought that shooting people and portraits was not my thing. I never liked photos with fake poses or studio shots with artificial lighting. I always was a person who loved the outdoors and for me photography was always a means of capturing life as it is: be it a landscape or wildlife or even people but who were not aware that they are being photographed. My favourite genre of photography was and always will be travel photography but during the last year I made a huge effort in trying to focus on people. A year ago I wrote a post on the fact that I wanted to work on my weak point and I learned a lot. During my trip in Asia I shot some portraits, however most of the people I shot were unaware that I was taking pictures of them. These are the kind of portraits I like as I find the other ones fake and not in my style.
Some time ago a friend of mine asked me to shoot the Christening of her baby boy. At first I had mixed feelings about it since usually I only do this kind of shoots for family events. What I hate (or thought I would hate) about this kind of photography is that I see the photographer as an intruder who must always be there and get in the way when something happens in order to be ready to shoot it. My first objective was to be as professional as possible since I wanted my friend to have the best shots possible of this memorable day. I made research beforehand and searched on the internet for ideas. The day before I prepared everything and I was very excited, so much so that I really woke up early on the day, much earlier than I had thought.
I arrived at the church and was truly happy of the light available. I don’t like fake flash light and although I had been there before, the light in the morning was even better than I remembered. This was the turning point as now I was comfortable to shoot in my own style. I shot everything I had planned and also shot the mandatory family photos. What I enjoyed the most is shooting children; they are unpredictable, do not pose and the natural expressions on their faces are priceless. What have I learned from this day: shooting children is actually my thing as I enjoyed this day as much as I enjoy shooting a landscape or wildlife. Below are some shots of this unforgettable day.
