Okinawa Photo Shoot: Letting the Baby Lead

Ice cream around the mouth and all the attention on the baby: family photos in Okinawa

Hi, I’m author S.

These days.. I don’t plan out the shots.
I didn’t tell them to do this. If the parents play with their kids, I find the angles and take photos as things unfold. I used to try to control everything from 1 to 10, but these days I photograph kids doing whatever they feel like. If I direct anything, it’s how mom and dad join in with what their child is doing. Photos of the child alone are lovely too, but I think they look lovely with mom and dad always in the background as the supporting cast.

Photos of kids are especially precious keepsakes that they’ll be looking at for another 20 or 30 years, so I make a point of aiming for 10K-level detail. I’m pretty set in my ways when it comes to photography.. I don’t use zoom lenses like a 24-70 for photo shoots. Well.. they might be fine for posting small images on Instagram, but as I said, the quality has to be good from the start for the photos to still look lovely 20 or 30 years later.

In close-ups like these, I remove most moles and scars. I used to leave some, you see? It gave me a bit of wiggle room to fib, “I barely retouched it~” But.. these days, photos can be misused for AI-related crimes, so I make subtle changes.

It’s early in the shoot, so the baby is still a little aware of me, but after a while they stop paying any attention to me.
After about 20 minutes.. it tends to go one of two ways. They either ignore me completely or really take to me. It’s usually the former.

This baby really liked shiny things.
Boys are very interested in things with mechanical parts or things that run on electricity, while girls respond to round objects with vivid colors. So I take slightly different routes depending on whether the only child in the group is a boy or a girl.

A candid shot as we pass by.

This photo might mean nothing to anyone else, but a little something happened here. It’s one of those memories only mom and dad would understand.

I often take lots of photos that capture this sort of energy.

Working out a route as we go. I like Depot Island because there’s so much to include in the photos.

I don’t really set anything up. After photographing lots of babies.. I can roughly guess how they’ll react when they pass a place like this. There’s no way they’d walk straight past that colorful ice cream. That’s when I capture their curiosity.

Hehe.

When I photograph babies.. I don’t think making everything neat and tidy is always the right approach.
Well.. my whole approach to baby photography is that the most unnatural photos of babies are the ‘normal’ ones.. Babies don’t know any better, do they? So I actually prefer it when they have ice cream around their mouth like this. It’s fun, isn’t it?

I take a shot as we head upstairs. Again, I didn’t direct them, just quickly took a photo as they passed by.

I can photograph everything 100% as it happens, without directing anyone.. but this is.. Okinawa.. so I do need to take photos that look like Okinawa. Candid photos are lovely, but the family needs a few keepsake photos that say, we were here together.

I directed this one too. Again, I didn’t ask the baby to do anything 😀

I take candid shots as we wander around.

The baby was particularly fond of this gift box, so I took quite a few photos here.

There are cars around, so I keep reminding them to hold the baby’s hands as they walk. At that age.. they can suddenly run off at any moment, so you always have to keep an eye on them.

When photographing babies, I always have to pay attention to relative size and perspective too.
Mom and dad are obviously bigger than the baby, so if I’m not careful, the baby can end up looking like a prop rather than the star of the photo. That’s the kind of photo I’m most careful to avoid.

There are no cars here, so the baby can run around a little.
During shoots.. it’s usually the dads, but sometimes they hang back while mom and baby do their thing. Then I keep nagging them. Don’t stand on the sidelines -_-;;

Taking these in Okinawa makes them all the more meaningful.. but honestly, well.. they’d work just as well at Seoul Forest (Seoul-sup:서울숲) or Haneul Park (하늘공원).

This is walking against the sky, a shot I took a lot in Prague.
When the baby is little, I have the parents hold them like this. As I mentioned earlier, if the parents stand beside the baby, the baby becomes less prominent and mom and dad get all the attention in the photo. So.. when I photograph babies, the baby always comes before anyone else. Mom and dad come next, but if only the baby looks good in a shot, I’m happy for mom and dad to be the supporting cast. That’s how I think these photos should be taken.
I’m always ready for the baby’s expression to change at any moment.. I treat every smile as though it might be the last one.

There’s no need to control what babies do. I think babies look their best in photos when they’re doing whatever they feel like. I just position mom and dad beside them and take the photos.

I caught this in a split second, so there’s a little distortion in the photo.. but as long as the baby looks good, it’s OK.
And that’s another happy family session wrapped up.

I’m off to another shoot, then. Keep following along!

The listed rates for Okinawa photo shoots are 250,000 KRW for 1 hour during the day and 300,000 KRW for 1 hour at sunset or at night, with 20 edited photos and 300 originals, but I’m not taking bookings at the moment. I may resume them someday, but I haven’t decided when. If I do, I’ll post a separate announcement. I’m currently doing lots of shoots in Gyeongju, and my base covers Tongyeong, Geoje, Changwon and western Busan. For booking information and contact details, please visit the Sarangbi Snap page.