I have the greatest respect for multiple birth parents.  One baby is life altering.  Two must rock your world.

Like parenting twins, photographing them is also exponentially challenging.   Fortunately, I think my photographic style gives me an advantage in the challange.  Because I am interested in real life, I love a photograph of a crying baby as much as I do a smiling baby, and I am not consumed with getting a pre-determined shot that may not come, I am liberated to simply create and enjoy the challenge.

Of course, parents, will generaly stress out about the photoshoot because they have paid for my time and have certain pre-conceved notions about what a baby portrait should look like and what kind of shot they want to get.  But, my advice to every parent, weather they are hiring me, or just trying to photograph their own children, is to simply go with the flow.  Never force the photograph, and let it become what it will.

A twins infant portrait is the perfect laboratory to prove this hypothesis.  In this case, I arrived at the home in the late evening and the mother and father know me and trusted what I was doing, so there wasn’t a lot of stress over the photos.  Of course, this is crucial to the success of the shoot.  If mom is stressed, baby will be stressed.

The first thing I tell parents is that we are going to keep shooting and get lots of great images and that babies are cute, no matter what they are doing, so relax and let’s just have fun, even if the children are crying.  The other thing that I do to maintain the relaxed atmosphere is to plan enough time for the photo shoot.  If the baby needs to eat, then we need to take a little break and I can take photos of the babies toys or talk with dad.  Rushing the parents or the baby, will only end in failure.

With plenty of time and a relaxed mom and dad, the stage is set for a successful photo-shoot, but the most important element is the understanding that I am there to photograph children as they really are, smiling or crying, and that gives me the freedom to concentrate on the photographs that I am making.

Some people are not comfortable with this concept and want to control the final outcome, and there are some very good photo factories that are perfect for that.  A parent can go to the mall and choose from the catalog of props and sets and have a photograph of their child in a chefs hat in a cooking pot and they will walk out with the print they saw in the catalog, with their child in the pot rather than the model baby.  It is something akin to keeping buying a frame at the store and pasting your kids faces over the happy people in the stock photo that came with the frame.  It is very predictable and the people who work at these photo factories know the menu and they know the recipe for this shot and that.  It is predicable and safe and there is nothing wrong with that.  But the parents who come to me for portraits are interested in something special and unique to immortalize their child.  They want something real, something that means more than just a cute portrait.

Coming into the home, allows the child to be photographed in a unique environment that is filled with memories and spirit and as I use this natural surrounding, the child is placed at ease and more importantly, nothing is a prop, because everything has meaning.  And by discarding those pre-conceved shots and just taking things as they come, we are all open to letting things happen and enjoying the experience.  And we still end up with some of those cute traditional photographs, but without the stress.  However, I will always maintain that the less planned images are always the best.

It certainly is not a predictable way to photograph a child, but children aren’t predictable anyway and in the end, no one can doubt the outcome.  The images are full of emotion, humor and joy and are extraordinary portraits that will be cherished forever.

Of course, you can judge the results for yourself.

This is a new slideshow of images from a recent infant portrait. I enjoy it when I can get to the hospital to photograph the baby. The mom and dad were married a little over a year ago here in Phoenix, Arizona and then we went to Rome to photograph them there as they had their marriage blessed by the Pope.

It is such a thrill to continue to follow the life of this family, documenting the most important moments. It is an honor, truly.

I told you, I have been very fortunate lately.  My infant portrait sessions have been wonderful, all of the kids have been very calm and cooperative.  This one was kind of a reunion, I shot child life portraits of big brother a few years back, so it was fun to see him again.  He has grown so much and of course, I am sure he didn’t remember me, but we told him he did, and he at least pretended to remember me, so I felt good about that.

Here is the slideshow and a few examples of my favorite images from the infant portrait session.

I love watching the relationships between an infant and their older siblings.

Dad’s initials are the same as the infant’s initials.  This is dad’s cuff link.  It was a spur of the moment idea on dad’s part.  I liked the way it turned out.

This was a cute little blanket with a teddy bear head at the top.  A great photo to start a baby book, I thought.

Great-grandpa made the rocking-horse in the background.  This is the reason I advocate going into the baby’s space rather than going into a studio to photograph an infant portrait.  There are so many very important things that are missed.  I am always going to take important historical significance over cute portraits any day.

As I was photographing the baby on the floor, I noticed that dad was looking in with interest.  So I changed my angle and asked mom to join.  This to me is the perfect little story.

Here is great-grandpa with the boys and their respective rocking horses, both made by his hands.  I can’t think of a more important photo that I took that day.

This one speaks for itself.

Big brother was getting a bit bored of the photoshoot, so I took a few minutes to goof around with him and do something he thought was super fun.  When I suggested he climb into a pile of his stuffed animals, his eyes lit up.  I don’t think his parents knew about this photo at the time, I think it is a surprise for them.  I think they will like it.

Random hats came out.  I though this one was a winner.

There is always the photos of the small little hands contrasted with the parent’s hands, but I like to push the limits of that photo and get something a little different with some unique framing and compositions.  This requires a lot of attempts with a large number of failures because the baby is often moving a lightning speeds, but there are always some successes.

I had to wait for the crying with this little guy as well.  He was such a pleasant little baby.  But I think I got a good one.

As we wrapped up the evening portrait session, the family started winding down and turned on the FOX News Network.  Big brother (only 4 or 5) was completely engrossed in whatever Bill O’Reilly was saying.  There’s a future politician for you.

And I couldn’t have asked for a better wrap up photo than this one.  Great-grandpa and great-grandma relaxing with the baby.  You couldn’t get this photo in a studio, no matter how much planning you did.   Studios are great for formulaic portraits and perfect lighting, but they don’t lend themselves to capturing life.  And as Henri Cartier-Bresson said, ”photography is nothing, it’s life that interests me.”

I just finished adjusting and editing a new set of infant portraits.  Our little model was a very pleasant baby.  I have had a few very pleasant baby models lately, perhaps it is summer babies?  Anyway, this photo session was a joy.  Enjoy the slide show and the example photos below.

We did some documentary style stuff as well as a few set up shots in around the house.  When I shoot this way, we use little or no flash (preferably no flash if I can get away with it).  In this instance, we are using the window light and the room light, nothing more and shooting at a high ISO with a 2.8 aperture to allow for as much light as possible and as a bonus, we get that shallow depth of field which really puts the focus on those beautiful baby eyes.

I love this next series.  Big brother is trying to get in on the action.  I see this in my kids all the time.  Big brother always wants to give the baby a hug or a kiss.  This set of three images deserves to be seen together.

And now for some portraits.  This one turned out wonderfully.  I was so happy with the lighting on it.  Let me remind you that this is in the client’s home.  You don’t need a studio to shoot this, in fact, everyone is more comfortable in their own home (assuming they like their home).  I love how the baby and dad emerge from the dark background and the baby’s hands are perfectly placed.  Way to go dad!  And then the baby went pee all over him…  But I think he’ll agree, it was worth it… I know mom will.

This is a one week old baby.  She had a lot of strength.  This was all her, with no heroics and quite a developed little grin too.

This is one of my favorite shots from the infant portrait session.  It is so soft and full of brightness and warmth.  Depth is a magnificent thing in a photograph.

The baby cried one time.  I love photographing a crying baby.  A lot of parents worry when their child cries of fusses during a portrait session.  They fuss and stress, which tends to stress the child even more and the apologize profusely to me.  I have to remind people that I am attempting to capture the personality of their child, their expressions and mannerisms.  When they cry, that is a great photograph too.  In fact, I love looking back at the pouty photos of my children.  Those pouts and sour faces are a part of their personality.  Of course with this little baby, I worried she might never realy give me a good cry, but she got one in for me and I was ready to capture it.

There is a lot of warmth in this image which is not from the lighting at the scene, in fact the lighting was very cool.  The daylight outside was very blue as was the flash I was bouncing into the ceiling.  All of the warmth is added in Adobe Lightroom in post production.  Most of these images were not ever brought into Photoshop.  For those of you who are interested in the technical side of this, I do not simply increase the temperature to get warmth in my photos, that does not look real and often times will over saturate the warmer tones in the image.  Instead, we are adding a image toner in the highlights and the shadows.  This creates a more realistic feeling of warmth.  I will be posting a lesson on this technique on my Lightroom Podcast on iTunes next week, so if you are interested, go subscribe.

This was a perfect dresser for a little baby portrait.  I love all of the white in the shot, it helps the little toys and decorations, like that teddy bear.  It is a very geometrical shot.  I am generally much more prone to angling my frames in strange ways, but when geometry gets involved I work very hard to make sure I have the angles very square to the camera.  In a small room, though, this becomes difficult, because wide angle lenses distort the edges of the frame and straight lines become a bit bowed.  There are two solutions to this: 1. buy or rent a very expensive rectilinear lens or 2. fix it in post by negating the warp in Photoshop. — OR — the third option, which does not require Photoshop at all and is almost completely automatic.  I choose the third option.  All of my shots are automatically adjusted for lens distortion based on the camera and lens combination I am using.  I can’t believe it is possible to do it, but it is… look at the results, they are nothing short of miraculous.  Oh, what is the third option?  Ligthroom.  This technology is also available in the latest camera raw Photoshop CS5 as well.  Having this technology available has changed my imagery quite a bit.  I would never have taken the time to go into each image in Photoshop to negate the lens distortion, and now I don’t have to.  Have you figured out that I prefer to stay out of photoshop as much as possible?

As much as I like the first version, I do enjoy the more simplified version, the close-up.  It has a much more graphic design to it.

On the little shelf above the dresser was a small suitcase, which also made a good little prop for her to sit in.  I always look for things in the house I can use as props and backdrops.  I try not to rely on bringing props with me and although it makes for a more challenging job, the portraits turn out to be far more interesting, because it is the child’s natural surroundings.  Natural props in the photos are things that will mean far more to the parents in years to come than some cute prop in a studio.  In this case, she will probably have this bear for years too come.  I love the way she is holding the bear’s ribbon.  I did need to run this one through Photoshop because mom was holding the baby up, so her arm had to be removed from the shot.

And her comes big brother with an Oreo Cookie.

Little feet, big hands.  Everything about an infant is so perfect.  They are perfect little miracles.

As I may have mentioned before, my brother, accountant and second photographer, Rex, got married in San Diego a week ago.  The wedding was in La Jolla, Califonia and the reception in San Diego itself.  I was only there for a few hours, because I was needed at home (our little baby girl was just born).  So I flew in for the wedding and flew out before the reception was over.  It was quick, but it was a beautiful day and such an honor to photograph my brother’s wedding.  He’s a great friend and his wife is a fantastic person.

The wedding portraits were shot on the beaches of La Jolla, California.

My favorite images are below as well as a slideshow.  Enjoy.

The sky was blue and the sun was perfect, but sometimes, color, even as beautiful as it can be, is a distraction from the shapes and form of the photograph.  So, I removed the color and the image just sang to me.

The flowers were a subject unto themselves, so I couldn’t have the flower girl hold the flowers near her dress.  The needed to be on their own, against the horizon, just like she was.  She was already holding them up and out a bit, so I asked her to pronounce what she was already doing and for heaven’s sake, don’t look at me…  I think there is something wonderful in this photo.  I see a young flower girl who is just about to grow up.

Kacey really wanted to do a few shots in the gas lamp district.  We were running out of time, but we did it and I am so glad we did.  I loved the images we got down there.  And I think the effect here on the photos goes well with the feel of the streets in the area.  I make some pretty quick decisions (some not consciously) while shooting and editing images, but they usually end up being the right decisions.  I think that is what photography is all about.  Making decisions.  We make a lot of them in split seconds and have to live with them.  I am glad I make those decisions well.  I suppose if I didn’t, I would need to find a different career.

Can you believe the perfect luck on this photograph.  I couldn’t have planned it any better.  We got them into position and put the light on them to help equalize the exposure between the bright sun and the couple and then…  cue the bird!  That bird just makes the photograph.  Jonathan Livingston Seagull, anyone?

The La Jolla coast line is full of absolutely beautiful and strange beaches.  It is one of my favorite places to photograph wedding portraits.  No matter what time of day it is, there is a spot for some pretty magnificent photographs.

The next photo reminds me of a photograph I have by George Bernard Shaw (the author).  I found the photo in the archives at the London School of Economics where all of his films and prints are kept.  It is quite a treasure trove of images and I think the strangest place for a photographic collection.  The color effect makes it feel a bi more like BS Shaw’s Photo, albeit his is scratched and full of dust and poorly printed.  The LSE staff is not great at printing.  I suppose they would be the first to admit that the principles of division of labor preclude them from being good at anything artistic.  Anyway, as I was shooting this photo I was thinking about Shaw’s photo in my modest collection of old obscure photographs, which is one of the few little sentimental pleasures in my life.

This one Kacey broke out of her shell and started hamming it up.  That is always a good sign, when your bride and groom forget about being cool and just start having fun.

We recently shot a Aimee and William’s wedding at The Boulder House in Scottsdale, Arizona, near The Boulders Resort. It is a magnificant home and the most peculiar I have ever seen. It was designed by nature and one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s students. I think this is an instance where the student truly outperformed the master.

This was one of the most challenging weddings I have shot in a long time.  The ceremony was scheduled for outside, but it was rained out.  The house is an amazing home which is buried in the middle of a pile of boulders.  The outside and inside walls are made up of these large stones, so the home was very beautiful inside as well as out.  But the change between an outside wedding to an inside wedding was quite a challenge as the inside of the home was very dark and with the storm clouds blocking the sun, even the windows couldn’t provide much light.  Once the call was made to hold the wedding inside, we scrambled and pulled everything together.  With a lighting kit and some high speed digital cameras, we were able to make some great images and make sure that the inside ceremony was equally as beautiful as the outside ceremony would have been.  In the end, the wedding was beautiful and so was the photography.  Of course, always coming prepared was worth the Boulder House’s weight in gold (more on being prepared later).

This is my most recent Senior Portrait session in downtown Phoenix, Arizona.  It was a fun morning with Chelsea and her family.  She changed outfits about four or five times and we got a lot of great shots in her different sports outfits as well as the letterman jacket and some cute dress shots and casual wear.  Working in a downtown city setting is perfect for getting a wide variety of backdrops without having to spend the time to travel from place to place.  Every kind of backdrop is available to you just by turning around.  Plus, as an added bonus, the light is beautiful open shade for a much longer time in the canyons of the city walls.  One can shoot well past the “sweet light” deadline in the morning and when things get too bright on one street, there is always another street around the corner with completely different lighting conditions.

Enjoy the slideshow from this senior portrait session below:

Here are a few of my favorite images from the senior portrait session.

There is nothing like an early morning in the city with no traffic, the sun’s indirect glow and beautiful open shade. I would prefer to shoot in the city any day of the week.

Simplicity of design in a photo is very important to me.

The dress is perfect for the color treatment on the photograph.

When Chelsea told me she plays tennis, I immediately saw this in my head. We found a court, paid for an hour and dumped practice balls all over the court. The key to the photo was the angle of attack though. The balls are very important to the image and needed to be grouped together, so I had to get comfortable on the ground. I lay down on the job an awful lot.

Downtown is always a great place for graffiti. I sometimes wonder when I will be contacted by the graffiti artist for copyright infringements. I imagine the artist will want to stay anonymous.

There aren’t any lakes in the city for wake boarding. So, we had to find ourselves a flat spot with lots of blue sky. We tried a spot in the fields south of town, but were kicked of by an awfully rude reservation officer, so we moved up the road a mile to the edge of the reservation and took our shot there. Same sky, and it turns out that the tribe doesn’t own the sky, so it was ok for us to photograph it. What a relief.

The family came along and everyone had a letterman’s jacket, so we took a shot. I thought it turned out great.

For more examples of senior portraits, go to www.plattphotography.com.

I have posted about Kevin Burdick before.  I thought I would share with you a slideshow and set of images from the album cover photo shoot for Kevin’s latest album, We Are The Walking Wounded. It is a fantastic album which you can find at iTunes or on his web site. Kevin has written some of his most haunting songs for this album.

Below are shots from Kevin Burdick’s final album cover for We Are the Walking Wounded.

It is always interesting to see the final product after it has gone through the designer. The original file was a color image with the head of the model included, and is a great image on its own. But, I love the effect of the crop on the image. There are so many things that can change an image, but I will always maintain that the crop is the hardest hitting change that can be made to an image. Notice the way the focus of the image is changed completely by the crop.  In this case the focus of the image becomes the girl’s wounds, and perhaps her pain…

Kevin Burdick's final album cover for his latest album, We Are the Walking Wounded.

… whereas the original un-cropped image focuses less on her wounds and metaphorical pain and more on her loneliness and solitude, as she trudges down a lonely road.  Leaving the image in color still allows her wounds to remain important in the photograph, but the overall message behind the photograph is very different in the original, rather than in the cropped album cover version.

The original image that ended up as the cover for the album cover, complete with the model's head.

Some photographers might be upset when the intent of their image is changed from their original idea at the camera, but I was not shooting some high brow artistic project, I was part of a larger production which had as its end goal a multi media product. This kind of a thing includes the music and lyrics of the musician and his vision, makeup artist, designers, crew and models. And everyone adds to that final creation, by bringing their artistic abilities to the table. Many times, as a photographer / director, I ask for one thing and on the way to the end, a model will give me something completely unexpected and it is far better than what I had originally intended. And I am happy to follow the new path and follow where it leads. When I am involved in a larger production, it is important for everyone to have a strong opinions, but check their egos at the door. Quite frankly I was pleased with the final image and thought it furthered the song’s message quite nicely.

Scouting the album photo shoot was the most critical thing we did.  We knew that there was an old town called Thistle, Utah that had been buried in a mudslide years and years ago, so we went out in search of the location a few days prior to our shoot and found this home buried in a bog, which had a fantastic look, and was near highway, so it made access very easy.  The only real concern was how to carry a Grand Slam Piano Body through the thickets and swamp to a small patch of dry, firm ground.  It was quite a challenge, but we did it and I think the images were a success as a result.

Kevin Burdick and his wounded entourage and his stage piano in the near a half sunken house in Thistle, Utah.

Kevin, his manager and one of the models carrying a Grand Slam baby grand body across the highway back to the tour bus after the photo shoot.

I wanted to see Kevin playing his piano in the most unlikely place. This spot worked out great.

It was an fun shoot, we all had a great time and got some cool images.  It is important for me to get out of the wedding photo zone once and a while to photograph something very different.  Shooting personal work, political events, editorial portraits and such helps me to maintain a fresh eye on the world and I find that each time I come back to a wedding I have something new to give to my clients as a result.  As photographers we have to continually practice and keep our skills sharp, and any opportunity I can find to do that in a different way, I take.

Here are a few more images from the album cover photo shoot.

This one seemed to feel like an old horror film, where the girl is running away from the monster and of course she is constantly falling and looking back.

The makeup on this model was very good. As we were shooting I thought the little lip bite was adorable in a strange way.

The vantage point on this image was critical to seeing Kevin, the wounded and the swamped house. My height was accomplished by climbing up onto a half demolished old shed. Not the safest place to be, but we didn't have a ladder. Lesson: always bring a ladder, but if you forget, do anything to get the shot...

We were very proud to have gotten the piano into this position for the shot. And my hat off to Grand Slam for making a piano body that is light enough to get it into this spot.

Musician: Kevin Burdick

Photographer: Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Location: Thistle, Utah

It is an interesting thing to have talented friends.  I grew up around very talented people, but Kevin Burdick was one of the most talented and has always amazed me with his story telling and musical depth.  It is such a pleasure to work with him as his photographer.  Next project: a music video!

Devin and Lee were married at Tlaquepaque in Sedona, Arizona.  The images we got are fantastic!  Lee and Devin are a very cool couple and we loved working with them and their whole family.  Because we shoot in a documentary or “photojournalistic” style, the limited time we had for portraits was plenty.  We used the last minutes of sunlight for the couple’s portraits and then as the sun disappeared, we had a small portrait studio ready for a quick 10 minute group and family portrait session.  Then, everyone was off to the reception and dinner.  And even though the dinner was outside, at Tlaquepaque, the walls surrounding the event provided a great place to bounce our flashes, giving the very natural lighting look you see in the reception images.

Devin and Lee, thanks for having us as a part of your wedding.  We’ll see you in LA soon.

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