Gymnastics & Cake

A couple of Saturdays ago, I spent the afternoon photographing a four-year-old's birthday party at a gymnastics studio in the city. Children's parties are fun for me, because they force me to to shoot in different ways: these were all taken with my external flash kit (it's nearly impossible to adequately capture moving children indoors relying solely on natural light without the risk of motion blur). For a long time, I was super "anti-flash," but then I realized how silly that mindset is. I strongly believe that in order to call yourself a professional, you need to be able to comfortably shoot in a variety of different lighting scenarios. I challenge myself to make flash photography look as close to natural light as possible, since natural light photography is still my fave.

After an hour and change of keeping up with tumbling preschoolers, we retreated to the party room for pizza and cake. My client emailed me after the party to tell me that when asked what her daughter's favorite part of her birthday was, little E replied "Having Kayla here to take pictures of me flying!"

Can't beat that.

[Contact me if you or someone you know has a birthday or other small event you'd like photographed. More information here.]