My Inspiration-By Chikadeez Photography:

Hi there, I’m Laura of Chikadeez Photography.  I wanted to take a few minutes to blog some images of my favorite little guy, my son, Jackson!

Jackson is an endless source of inspiration for me.  Each day, with him,  is a new adventure, he’s a problem solver, funny, crazy, WILD, passionate, caring, and very perceptive.  Watching the way he explores the world is thrilling and eye opening.

Before I became a mom, people were always talking about how I would teach my children about life, which of course is true.  However, no one mentioned how much my children would teach me.  I’ve learned so much about life through watching my kids interact with the world around them.  Parenthood is the most wonderful experience ever!

The images below are some of my all time favorites of him, doing what he loves best!

When coming up with scenarios to photograph Jackson in, I think about who he is at that exact moment.  What is going on in his life right then?

For instance, he really enjoys helping out in the kitchen.  So one morning, we woke up and decided to do a photo shoot of him fixing his own breakfast.  He had a great time cracking the egg and whisking it.  I’d never let him cook anything on the stove before, but he did great.

Jackson loves books, so I wanted to incorporate some of his favorite stories into a shoot.  Sometimes it’s hard to figure out how to use props in a session.  In this case, we were picking out books to use, and I started handing them to him.  I noticed that they were getting heavy and he was laughing.  I added a few more, then quickly grabbed my camera to catch his giggles.  For the other images, I tried to think of unique ways to frame him with the books.  He had a blast trying to balance that stack on his head.

Although Captain America is his favorite super hero now, at the time when I took these images, Spiderman was his fave.  Jackson geared up in his “Super” cape, wristbands, and mask; and we headed out to his favorite comic book store.  The guys working thought it was totally awesome, that he was getting his picture taken there.

This series makes me crack up every time I look at it.  Jackson’s expressions are priceless!  It was my 31st birthday, and hubby was out of town, so it was just me and the kids celebrating.  After each of us had some cake, we agreed that we should totally have a cake fight!!  We headed out the backyard, and I unleashed the cake on them.  It was so much fun, I think it’s going to be a yearly tradition now (hahaha).

These next two images were taken at different times of the year, but I put them together because I thought it was cool to see them side-by-side.  In the Spring and Summer, Jackson loves to play outside and climb trees.  Then when Fall comes, he LOVES to play in the leaves.  Some of the neighborhood kids were blowing the leaves into a pile and next thing we see is Jackson running and jumping in the leaves.  The kids acted like they didn’t notice him in the pile, and then they snuck up behind him and blew the leaves all over him.  That expression is PURE joy!

As you can see, when I shot these images, I didn’t really need to direct him.  I put him in situations that he wanted to be in, something that he felt comfortable doing.  Then I let him have fun and experience the moment.  At times, I might guide him a little bit, but that’s about it.

Doing sessions like this with your own children is a great way to practice for sessions with paying clients.  It allows you to test ideas and not be so worried about whether it turns out successful or not.  You can try things, and if they don’t work, you can learn from it and fix it.  By posting images like this on your site, you show your clientele what you love to shoot.  That opens their eyes to ideas they may not have considered before.  In fact, some of these images are exactly what led us to creating The Fort.

If you’d like to see more, please visit my website, or you can like me on Facebook.