I was on a month-long sabbatical during in May'13 and got to spend some time
with my family in Himachal. My Sister was also at home with her 4-month-old
baby – Urvi. This Photo Journey shares some moments spent with Urvi.
She is a sweet kid with smile on her face most of the times. She is not choosy or moody (as of now :) ), as she responds equally well to everyone around. Of course there are some exceptions to it. Her Nana (maternal grandfather) is really special to her, apart from her mom. She starts giggling as soon as she sees her Nana.
During this time, I also taught her a few things and one of the actions can be seen in the above photograph :) . No one approves of anything I teach her. Now whenever she notices me her tongue comes out automatically :) .
Each moment when she does something new is precious for us. A 4-month-old child is hardly ever able to lift head without any support. But she does this when she is not able to see any of us around her but can hear our voices. These moments confuse us - while all of us feel excited to see her do these new things but at the same time, everyone is worried whether this is fine or not. Should we go and give some support to her neck or not?
During this time I learned a lot about Kids' behavior and spent great moments with Urvi. Probably it was the first time, when I didn't want to leave a baby and come back to Delhi. I wish I had an option to spend more time with her in Himachal or take her with me to Delhi. Anyways, next visit is planned on the coming weekend, so I'm happy about that :).
During this time, I thought of clicking these photographs. She can't sit as of now. So in the above photograph, we created a cushioned seating setup for her and there was one person on each side to support her if needed. It was very hard for her to be stable. The above photograph was clicked when she was falling towards the left :).
The expression says "What are you doing and why am I wearing winter clothes in summers?"
During this time I also learned the way small kids behave on seeing a camera in front of them and a person who is always observing and trying to capture different expressions. It is extremely important to notice right mood of the kid to be photographed. I know many Photographers who only do Kids photography and I wonder how they plan their shoots w.r.t. time, because it is hardly in their control.
For taking this particular photograph, it took us 30 minutes to make her comfortable and to bring her into the right mood. We did a joker dance and other funny things to keep her busy and happy. She loves her toys so we handed over some of them to her. I love the above photograph, which shows a strong expression that says how well she is connected to the toy in her hands – a beautiful eye contact and the love in her eyes.
Four people at work here. One on each side to support her, whenever needed. One to engage her in different conversations through eyes and to bring different expressions to her face, and the fourth was the photographer :).
Here is a nice article on Kids' Photography but most of the examples hold good for kids more than 2 years.
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