The most photographed baby in the world?

The Baby Photographer

Sympathy Pains

Published on Wednesday, 22 January 2014 13:30

Last Updated on 22 January 2014

Michael Shilling

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This last week I have been in attendance and speaking at The Societies photography convention here in London which is always a highlight in my calendar. Not only do I get to meet up with some old friends but there’s a huge trade show which gives me the chance to check out the latest gear and products.

 

As we have just opened up a new studio our walls are still very plain so we were looking for some interesting wall products amounts other things. However, one thing that really consumed my time was the hunt for a new camera.

 

 

Any photographer with children will at some point be told ‘I bet you’ve got the most photographed baby/child/children in the world’. It’s true that photographers take a lot of family pictures but in today’s brave new world of iphoneography everyone is a photographer and everyone carries a camera with them.

I know plenty of professional photographers that still hate the idea that their precious memories are being collected on the inferior lenses and sensors that phone cameras offer but continue to do so as they want to remove their professional photography from their personal life.

It’s common for a photographer to have a camera for work and another one for play, most of us men like our toys and male photographers are THE WORST when it comes to collecting gadgets that they SIMPLY MUST HAVE……for the business of course.

 

So back to my hunt for a new camera. For a long while I’ve wanted a more compact camera. I’ve always wanted to be one of those photographers that always has a camera with them wherever they go but my main studio camera is too bulky and my Nokia Lumia just doesn’t deliver the quality that I’m really after.

A good friend of mine Kevin Mullins who I meet up with every year at the convention is a Fuji X Photographer and last year had the privilege to be invited to Fuji HQ in Tokyo to speak about how he uses his Fuji X series cameras in his documentary wedding photography business.

Videos from the event were posted on YouTube and Kevin shared some links on Facebook which of course I clicked through and watched.

Along with Kevin’s there was another talk from photographer Bert Stephani. THAT talk sold me and the very next day I brought an X Pro 1.

What inspired me to part with nearly £1000 of my hard-earned money? It wasn’t the great deal that was on offer (although that helped) it was the way Bert spoke about how A CAMERA bridged the gap between his professional photography and his personal photography. He didn’t talk so much about technical details or other geeky things that sells to gadget loving photographers like me.

 

 

He talked about the way it allowed him to photograph in a new softer and more intimate way.

After looking at the handful of pictures that Bert shared I thought to myself “that’s how I want to photograph MY family and that’s the sort of photography that I would also like, to offer my clients”

 

That’s the way I like to describe my transition to smaller mirror-less cameras. My wife on the other hand asked me “Did Kevin make you buy that camera?” and “Did you just buy that camera because your photo friend has one?”

If only she could understand the evolution that is happening in my artist process!

 

Having received my new X Pro 1 I am looking forward to making my new son or daughter the most photographed baby in the world.

 

Michael Shilling is a baby and family portrait photographer at Memory Gate Photography he is due to become a father for the first time on 10th July 2014