Indeed, our little Nathan had also a crazy photoshoot same as his parents had several years ago in China. Okay it was not only one photoshoot but actually two different ones but that was due to my crazy Chinese mother-in-law. Why? Oh well, she messed up as usual but more about that later on. You might remember that the photoshoot we had back in 2011 is not one of my fondest memories as it was pretty much a day of torture for me. Now just imagine how to make a 1 1/2 year old kid pose for the camera for several hours…yeah it won’t really work.
Enough of the introduction and lets talk a bit about the first session Nathan had to endure. Appearently the first company they went to with Nathan was not the perfect one. MIL won from some kind of prize competition a photoshoot for children worth 500RMB. This was pretty great at first until they went to that place as everything was kind of run down and broken plus some of the items the children are supposed to pose with were empty German beer kegs. Each and every single thing was broken there and dusty enough that you might think that the place was a movie setting from Tatooine. The next problem were the clothes for Nathan. My wife brought some clothes she had ordered beforehand from Taobao and it was a good decision to do so as barely any clothes they had at the photoshoot were fitting or any good-looking for our little one. Needless to say my wife was not pleased at all about where her mother had taken them but MIL had already excuses as nothing is ever her fault. In the end she blamed her friend whom she had asked about the location and this friend said it was okay. So no way on earth it was MIL’s fault by not checking out this company beforehand!
Apparently it was also not Nathan’s best day as he was very grumpy but I guess it was also due to the jet lag as it was just few days after the arrival in China. I don’t know how but through some dark magic the photographer managed in those two hours of demon baby running around to get few decent shots. You know when you pose for some pictures you know where to stand as the photographer will give you basic commands what to do, how to smile etc. This does not work with a little kid. Everything and really everything is just pure luck. Little Nathan the Satan won’t just stand there holding a toy airplane and smile into the camera, no…he will take that airplane, throw it in some corner, turn around and crawl somewhere as crawling on a dusty ground is so much cooler than walking. In the end some pictures ended up pretty well and my in-laws even got a huge picture for their wall (the monk picture above).
The second photoshoot company was a total different matter. My wife spent several days researching all about this topic until she settled on one company. Everything also went well except two things which somehow happens every single time we have to be somewhere at a certain time. First of all MIL never wants to “book” a taxi as according to her it is no problem to get a taxi on the street. Yes, usually it is not a problem but when your appointment is around the time the taxi drivers have their shift change it is a huge problem. This always results that the heavily crowded busses are the main mean of transportation. The next problem is that it is impossible for my in-laws and my wife to find the right location. I don’t know if it is normal in China but it happens all the time with them. They roughly know where to go and it pretty much stops there already. Going around buildings and asking people where to go for at least one hour is nothing special. Now you can see why for this photoshoot Nathan was nearly two hours late resulting that a long waiting time was needed as the photo appointments of other children which were supposed to be after Nathan were suddenly before him (thank you MIL).
This second place was the exact opposite of the first company. Everything was clean, only few things were broken and the staff was pretty good in cheering up the kids to make them smile. Furthermore they did not push with one child through the whole session but gave after 5-10 min the kids (and the family) some rest and took pictures with another child. Though Nathan was still very great in avoiding in front of the camera what he was supposed to do the photographer adapted always quickly to the new situations and was able to take many great pictures in the end. Also the whole family left less exhausted and annoyed than after the first photoshoot as everything (except the arrival) went very smooth.
What are your experiences when it comes to take pictures of children?
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Nathan is looking awfully cute in those photos! Especially the monk series.
We really love the monk clothes. My wife bought it online and he had many trips around the city in those clothes 🙂
He looks so cute!!
Mr.Panda’s niece already knew how to pose when she was 2 years old. Maybe Nathan will also love the camera soon?
Basically he is just too young so far to understand that there is a reason why he should stand/ pose at a certain spot but let’s see for next year 🙂
Nathan’s photos are so cute and the monk pics are absolutely adorable.
The monk pics are the favorite of many people. When he walked around those robes in China many people took videos and pictures 🙂
The monk photos are quite adorable though, haha! It’s just funny how so many things seem to crop up around your MIL…:)
Yes, it seems MIL is the center of all evil in this world!
You guys have the most adorable kid :p I love how the pictures turn out. your MIL still makes me laugh.
Being into photography, taking pictures of kids are quite the tedious task. Like I always say to my clients, I don’t enjoy doing the whole posing-based photoshoots, especially with kids. Kids need to be natural and the only way to do that is to put them in an environment where they can be just themselves!
Indeed, the best pictures of Nathan are the ones where he did whatever he wanted. Whenever he was put into a certain position or pose with some items the pictures always turned out to be not so good as the natural poses 🙂
I liked Nathan the monk photos the best! BEcause it’s not typical for babies to wear that garb!
After all the Dali Llama wears sunglasses.. 😀
I totally forgot that the Dalai Lama wears sunglasses. Too bad we didn’t find a yellow robe for our son. His outfit was pretty popular when he walked around in it in China 🙂
am I the only one how thinks there’s a connection between the Little Monk and the evil inside of MIL? 😀
I don’t think little Nathan the monk will be able to contain the evil of MIL for long!
Those hats are absolutely adorable!
I like this woolen hat very much though it is a bit girly…
It’ll be perfect blackmail material when he’s a teenager 🙂
A toddler sit still for more than ten seconds? Only if he has a fever! that first place was crazy.
Yeah the first place was pretty messed up but at least the little one survived it well 🙂
I thought it is different with toddlers. Usually they don’t need to pose that much, do they? Just being themselves would be good materials for photographers to take nice candid shots.
I guess it always depends on the photographer. At the second location they adapted quickly to new situation and thus there was just a main theme for each dress but nothing too strict as our son could do whatever he wanted 🙂
These shots of Nathan are very good. If I hadn’t read your post, I would have thought Nathan was having very good days on each of the photoshoots. I am sure MIL enjoyed watching the photographer running around after Nathan, and Nathan running around all over the place at the shoots.
Yeah, pictures can be pretty good in covering up the truth 🙂
MIL surely had fun to see the staff suffer and she wouldn’t be herself without breaking some stuff there as well..
I am sure she was just being a big kid and the staff basically saw that and let her be 😛 She must have been going after Nathan too and Nathan trying to escape her clutches.
Nathan is already pretty good at avoiding her clutches :p
I like the one he is inside the bucket!
It is a great one but a mess to get it done! The first few times he did not like it at all, needed to bribe him with some cookies
Nathan the Satan 😁 that made me laugh out loud. Love the photos!
Thank you 🙂
I actually came up with Nathan the Satan as one woman once understood Satan when we told her his name…
Sounds like quite a challenge, and you did it twice! Though i must say that the pictures look really great and I’m sure that in the future Nathan will appreciate that you put in the effort. I mean, I would have loved to have a picture of myself dressed in a monk costume :):):)
True, I never had any cool costumes as a child and thus my childhood pictures are pretty boring compared to Nathan’s 🙂
What a little cutie!! Love him as a monk… Glad to hear that the second shoot went better. Sometimes in life we need a BAD experience to appreciate the good experience more, right?! 🙂
The thing is the whole first shoot could have been avoided in case MIL wouldnt have been too lazy to check out out herself…
But yes, everyone loves the monk 😀
He’s adorable! The photos are great. I don’t have a favorite. They’re all good. But two hours late? Oh, my gosh!
Two hours is nothing when my mother-in-law is responsible for planning. Most of the times she starts leaving around the time she should be at her meeting place…
I am really happy how all the pictures turned out. The photographers really know what they are doing (as they should) but it is still amazing to see how well they know what to do in order to create wonderful pictures
We had quite a job getting our eldest daughter to pose for her photoshoot when she was little. She was pretty hyperactive back then! Still the photographer did manage it, and we ended up with some lovely photos. Nathan looks so cute, particularly love the one of him in the wooden bucket!!
To get the pictures done where he sits in the bucket was really much work as he had a particular grumpy time then. Only cookies could calm him down in order to sit there peacefully 🙂
Taking pictures with young children seem to be always an adventure
Welcome back to China!
Great pictures, very cute, but it’s funny how the pictures hide the story behind them. For every one second of a good picture, must have been grueling hours of dealing with the small kid…
Still, let me repeat: great pictures
Wonder how the pictures would look like if you see all the surroundings eg. staff jumping around to make to child look at the camera, other children crawling around or crying and and and :p
Such cute pictures! Nathan is going to love these in 10 years time…haha
Let’s see what other pictures we will get for him until then /)
He looks absolutely adorable…. Too cute…
It was surely some long photoshooting Ive been told 🙂