During my short holiday in Surabaya, Indonesia, I had the pleasure of taking family photos of my high school friends. What made my job so much easier was the abundance of human resources ready to cheer up the kids so that they would either smile, laugh, or look at the camera. Yoan's driver had picked up the props from another high school friend, Anna (and her shop Adelh Gift). The grandparents, the nannies, and the maids were all over the place trying to make the kids smile. And then the kids got too hot and humid (it was scorching hot and humid, it felt sticky every day) and moody, they threw in few balloons and magic! The kids were all happy playing with the balloon. Now I understand more how important props are when shooting with small children. But what I can definitely not mimic here in Canada is the amount of help I had in Indonesia (each kid had his/her own nanny, and a household can have 2-4 maids, plus driver(s)).
In addition, Yoan, her mom, and her daughter had been to the hairdresser and make up artist very early in the morning (7 AM, if I am not mistaken?) and our photo shoot started at 11 AM. When I saw the make up, the hairdo, and the fascinators, I thought: the pressure! This is really serious! :) Not just shooting some high school friends randomly.
I thought I would run out of ideas, shooting kids, as this was my 1st. Thank you Yoan and family for making it so much fun!!!
