THE
Posing Playbook
FOR
Photographing Kids
TAMARA LACKEY
The Posing Playbook for Photographing Kids
Strategies and Techniques for Creating Engaging, Expressive Images
Tamara Lackey
Editor: Jocelyn Howell
Project Manager: Lisa Brazieal
Marketing Coordinator: Mercedes Murray
Interior Design: Malea Clark-Nicholson
Layout and Type: WolfsonDesign
Cover Design: Aren Straiger
Author Photograph (): Sara Harris
ISBN: 978-1-68198-553-4
1st Edition (1st printing, April 2020)
2020 Tamara Lackey
All images Tamara Lackey unless otherwise noted
Rocky Nook Inc.
1010 B Street, Suite 350
San Rafael, CA 94901
USA
www.rockynook.com
Distributed in the UK and Europe by Publishers Group UK
Distributed in the U.S. and all other territories by Ingram Publisher Services
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019950737
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Printed in Turkey
This book is dedicated to my beautiful children
Sophie, Caleb, and Ana Elisa
And to my beloved children in Ethiopia
Gabriel, Endrias, Wassei, and Tinsae
TAMARA LACKEY is a renowned professional photographer, speaker, author, and television show host. Her authentic photography, from portraits to humanitarian photography, is featured in a myriad of major media outlets, from popular magazines to entertainment sites and talk shows.
Tamara is a Nikon USA Ambassador, as well as the cofounder of Beautiful Together, a non-profit organization focused on supporting children waiting for families. She is also the show host and director of Chasing Frames, an adventure-photography show airing on PBS.
Tamara has spoken at a variety of programs, from presenting at Nikons mirrorless global launch in Tokyo to delivering inspirational talks at Google and Disney. She has delivered dozens of live-cast productions, led mentor treks, and conducted workshops around the world. She also has the distinction of being recognized as a Legend of Light by Profoto, an ON1 Guru, an Imagely Ambassador, and is part of the Think Tank Pro Team. She and her husband, their three children, and their active cadre of pets all live together in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
CONTENTS
Foreword
Tamara Lackey, throughout her remarkable career as a visual communicator, has proven time and again to possess a wonderful sensitivity for portraiture. Making effective, story-telling portraits, whether of adults or kids, is all about the relationship the photographer develops from behind the camera with the subject, and Tamara has a unique and open heart, and cares for her subjects deeply. You can see it in her pictures, always, the underlying humanity, the care and respect she displays for her subjects, and her generosity of spirit, which the subject in front of her lens obviously feels. All of these people skills combine with wonderful technical prowess, and the results are vibrant and lovely.
Moreover, Tamara is a kid at heart herself, and is fun-loving. You can tell the children here are enjoying being photographed, which is not an easy thing to make happen! Follow Tamara through this wonderful book and learn how to make marvelous kids portraits with grace, humor, playfulness, and excellent camera skills.
Joe McNally
Introduction
I LOVE PHOTOGRAPHY. I LOVE THE WORK I DO, the way I am able to do it, and the people I get to spend time with while I stay focused on consistently getting better at my job. And the reason all of that is true is because Ive been able to stop and confidently define my style. Not right away, though. Initially, I defined it mostly by what it was not, a pretty common approach to defining ones photographic style. Ive also failed at enough approaches to be able to rule out quite a bit!
Over time, though, I have come to recognize what I most naturally bring to the table, how that has always been reflected in my style of shooting, and how to better incorporate it into my photo shoots going forward. I know what fundamentals are required in order for me to succeedand I have practiced them all again and again.
At the root of my style of shooting is a combination of traditional posing that morphs into something quite natural and beautiful through spirited engagement, light-hearted adjustments, and a concerted effort to find the authentic. I want to share much of that with you throughout this book.
In 2003, when I first started shooting professionally, I mostly saw traditional poses in the work that was being produced around me. Generally speaking, these portraits struck me as stiff, unnatural, and sometimes even boring. The poses were often elegant, no doubt. The backdrop could be quite lovely, and the lighting techniques were often well-executed. I admired those aspects a great dealeven more so over time, actually. But these assets were often just repeated in portrait after portrait, so much so that it looked like the only thing swapped from image to image was the actual subject. Thus, from my perspective, the subject appeared to be a rather insignificant part of a repeated portrait. More apparent than all of that, though, was the lack of emphasis on expression. I was struck by that most because it is something that is more significant to me than anything else in a portrait.
In contrast, I was excited to pursue a fresh and unique approach to traditional portraiture, which included more dramatic black-and-white tones, vibrant color, and a major emphasis on storytelling, emotion, and authenticity. This genre of photography was soon referred to as contemporary photography, or later, lifestyle photography. The concept was not just to photograph someones likeness, but to try to capture their spirit as welltheir personality, their emotion, and many of the inherent characteristics they possessed that felt real and true.