Tattoo Daddy
Every time we hold our 2-Day CONFIDENCE Photography Workshop for women, we have families come on both days to model for the live shoots. Our attendees get hands-on practice, they watch me demonstrate a photo shoot and walk through my creative process, and everyone wins! Families get great photos from our ladies, and our ladies get awesome practice and build their family photography portfolio. One of my favorite memories was when we did our workshop at Huntington Beach in 2012. That’s when we met a great guy, I’ve since nicknamed Tattoo Daddy.
This dad was so gentle and kind. He had agreed to come with his wife not knowing what to expect. When I saw his tattoos poking out from under his short sleeve t-shirt, I asked him the unthinkable. I basically asked him to strip down in front of our twenty women attendees. No pressure, right?! LOL! But he was a GREAT sport. If tattoos were a part of his story, I wanted my portrait to capture exactly that.
I had him sit at the end of a dark hallway. This would give me a dark background when I metered on him. Window light illuminated him. I had baby strip down like dad and sit in his lap. And then I asked his wife to gently drape herself around him keeping her hands gentle and soft. I LOVED her hair. Her long hair was part of her story. We also didn’t need to see her face or even make eye contact with her to feel her loving presence. I focused on baby’s eyes and took the shot.
This was my portrait of Tattoo Daddy.
We can take a photo of dad and the kids smiling at the camera. But what would it look like if we took some risks, stretched our creativity, and searched for the story of dad? We might be pleasantly surprised with our results.
