Charlotte, Alex, and Hudson

There is something really special about families who have three children. I guess it's never dull or all that quiet, but the thing that really strikes me is the relationship between the kids themselves. They tend to get along and play together. They're a band, with options.. because if one sibling isn't up for something, there's always another option.

My mother is law grew up in a family of three. And she has this photograph from her childhood, showing the three kids together right around when she was four. You can pick out each person in the photo (the adults now being in their 60s), but they definitely look different, too. It's a snapshot of all of them looking at the camera, and that clarity of being able to distinctly see each person's features really resonated with me.

That's partially why I transitioned my work to Studio portraits. Because of the clarity of the photograph. There are no distracting elements (well, there certainly can be, but not in my photos), just the person being photographed. And when you can capture all three kids with their faces towards the camera, that's kind of the Holy Grail, isn't it?

Except it usually doesn't happen. 

When I photograph such a large family, I often have to stitch several photographs together to get one perfect image. Little differences in expression make a huge impact. Kids usually don't look at the camera for more than two seconds, which is relatively easy to capture with one child, but you get more than two, and it becomes almost impossible. And that's why having that "post-production" skill set is important. Not to say that those perfect photos don't happen in real life.. because they do. But when you're doing a photoshoot, we don't have the luxury of waiting around for days to get those perfect moments. We realistically only have about an hour or two. And it's the job of the photographer to make sure we get that perfect shot, every time.