End of the Easter Holidays

So the Easter holidays are drawing to a close. I can't believe how wonderful it has been, in weather, creativity, family, fun. For me I knew it was a chance to finally do some portraits using the wet plate collodion process. I thought I would try and get a few of my children and husband, but thanks to wonderful friends I also got a chance to photograph other children. It was really good fun. With the sun shining, the music on (or as in yesterday a bit cloudy with the wedding on:)), pizzas, carrot cake, lots of tea and the very strong smell of collodion in the air each child sat as perfectly still as possible for a portrait. What made me laugh was how all the children started off by really smiling in front of the camera (I never once told them they couldn't) and by the time we were ready to press the shutter for 1, 2, 3, 4, even 5 seconds they seemed to drift off, concentrate hard and go somewhere .. not sure where.

So here are a few more portraits. A few of my children, including my son sunbathing, and my daughter's homage to the Royal Wedding. We also have my friends daughter (with the glasses). This portrait is an amazing achievement .. (not compositionally I admit, but not always easy to get children to stay in one place) but the fact that she has point blank refused to have her photograph taken by anyone for years. When she came here the first thing she said was 'I am not having my photograph taken' lol. However, after seeing her brothers and sisters do it the first time around, she came back, I asked her, she said 'yes'. You should have seen her face, it was beaming (until I clicked the shutter). She did so well, the sun was in her eyes (hence the glasses) and with head leaning against the wall she stood very still. I am so happy to have this portrait, she is such a beautiful child, so funny .. can't wait to do more.

And finally, the first portrait here again is another friend of mine's daughter. She is absolutely beautiful. She has such a gentle soul. Yesterday was really cloudy and exposure time longer. I believe that she would have sat still for minutes, hours even .. the flowers were courtesy of my daughter .. I think there will be a lot of flowers in my portraits :) Again, I hope to do more, her angelic face was made for this beautiful process.

Anyway, I want to thank all these wonderful, beautiful children for helping me these past couple of weeks. People say never work with animals and kids, I disagree, I love it and I believe the wet plate collodion process was made for them.