Pre-Birthday Photoshoot Practice

Hello everyone and good day to y'all. Today I wanna share my experience doing a simple pre-birthday photoshoot.

Ever since I started my Pitik Photography journey in November of last year many have expressed their like and love about my work. Some have even approached me for doing some paid events or even pre-occasion like pre-birthdays, pre-debuts and pre-wedding photoshoot. Honestly I have declined all of their requests for the simple reason being I only own a bridge camera (Panasonic Lumix FZ80) and not a proper DSLR camera. I know for a fact that using a bridge camera ain't gonna cut it because of the sensor size together with the image quality it gives. Sure bridge camera shots are good enough for social media consumption but for events and photoshoots uhh-uhh, no way. Clients will most likely print some pictures and bridge camera are not made for printing large prints. I mean you could but honestly events happen in lowlight and bridge cameras suck at low light based on my experience that is why I never accepted any clients before.

Just a month ago I bought a Nikon D5300 in the second hand market and I have bought a Yongnuo 50mm F1.8 lens after that. I wanted to have a taste of what a real DSLR is capable of and honestly I was surprized by how far the gap is between bridge cameras and DSLRs. I can now shoot in a little low light thanks to the APS-C sensor of the Nikon D5300 paired with the F1.8 lens it's really a beast. It's not the sharpest lens coz it's the cheapest lens but honestly I am still amazed by the image quality it gives.

Anyways I have shot the Nikon D5300 for the past month and I think I'm already ready to take on some "Practice" photoshoot sessions. I say "Practice" coz I do it for free for now, coz like I said it's "Practice" for me. It just so happen that I took a random shot at this client of mine from 2 months ago I guess using my bridge camera and she liked my shot. She messaged me in my facebook page asking how much do I charge for a photoshoot coz she liked my works. I told her it's for "Free" for now coz I just wanna practice first before really taking on some paid shoots. So we worked out a date that was comfortable to both of us and did our little photoshoot in our local park.

My model for that days' photoshoot is her son who was a 3 year old boy. It was a really simple photoshoot with nothing fancy. Honestly I wasn't sure what to do at first but luckily one of my friend photographer was there with me during the shoot so I was able to ask him for tips. I looked around the park looking where I should put my 3 year old model to make a good portrait shot.

So I decided to go into the middle of the park first where there's like a huge pillar and is a great place to start I guess. I let him sit where there's a little bush behind him as a background and took some shots. Next was above where the pillar that I told you about lies and took a shot. Next was I looked around the grass nad found a place where he can sit comfortable and took a shot at it. Next was I let him walk around for a bit and took some series of shots but honestly this camera isn't good at taking shots at moving subjects or maybe I just suck at it. Out of the 20 burst shots only 5 where usable and even then not all are sharp.

After we were done in the middle of the park, I took the chance to let him go to the little playground just a few meters away from where we started. Sadly there were a few children playing in the playground so my choice of where to put him where quite limited. So I let him sit on a huge truck tire which is not used as a play thing in the park. I choose this spot coz there were no people in the background so I can shoot in peace without any kind of photobombers at the background.
Next was I placed him near the tree to make it as a lovely background for him and my goodness I didn't expect that shot to have those lovely bokeh circles in the background. I think this was the first time I saw it. That was the last part of the little boys photoshoot.

Next is the mother asked me if I could take a picture of both of her and her son. I happily obliged and looked around where to put them. I saw the beautiful white and pink bougainvillea flower and put them there to have a nice looking background. First was I let her cuddle her son up and they were just absolutely lovely. Next is I let her put the kid down and tried to take a shot at them again but this time I moved backwards to where another bougainvillea plant was and used its leaves as a foreground to the shot. It looked fine when I reviewed it in the camera but I guess I was wrong as it was hard to see the kid in the shot but oh well.

Next was a shot with the little boy and her aunt I guess. I'm pretty sure it's not his sister coz she's way too old to be the daughter of this lovely mother which honestly looks quite younger than me. And lastly her mother asked me if I could take a few shots of her and who wouldn't want to take a picture of a really beautiful model right? So I did...

And that was the end of the photoshoot. She honestly wanted to pay me something but I didn't take it coz I am a man of my word. I said I was going to do it for free and I did. She just thanked me and went home...

So for my first time experience how was it?

Honestly it was a nerve-racking experience. I didn't know what to do and I just trusted my gut to do the right thing and honestly I am not too confident whether I did good or not. Whether it be the shoot or the editing part. I felt like that I could've done more on the shoot. It was even harder coz 3 year old kids really aren't the most cooperative models in the world so I had to make due with it. Luckily I think I got some pretty decent shots although the composition is obviously gonna be off not by a few but a lot. I've also learned a few things I guess while doing this shoot. I need to be more mindful on my sorroundings and use it either as a foreground or background to make my shots more interesting. I'm sure these are pretty basic things that every photographer should know but doing it in practice as an amatuer is really hard. I guess another thing I should really do for my next shoot is to be confident to direct my model more coz honestly I was a little passive during this shoot. I did tell them what to do but my words were a little vague coz I'm shy lol. Well this was only my first ever client so I'm sure I'll be learning more stuff as I gain experience in this field.

So what do you guys think? Am I ready for getting paid from my output? Tell me your thoughts in the comments down below I would really love to hear your thoughts on this coz like I said I'm not confident enough. Also I am planning to do this "Free Photoshoot" for a few months I guess or until I've reached 10 or 20 clients so I can build a little portfolio for myself so that my future clients can look at my past work just like other photographers do.

Anyways guys I hope you like my shots till my next photoshoot coz I have another one this Thursday or Saturday and that time it's a teenager so hopefully I can be a little more upfront or frank about what she needs to do so I can get really good shots. Cheers everyone and have a nice day ahead!