It’s All About Mom

Redirect your focus to the special ladies in your life for beautiful Mother’s Day portraits they’ll treasure always.

Article By Jennifer Gidman

Images by Hollie Danklefsen, Liz Huston, and Courtney Slazinik

Before you begin your Mother’s Day photo shoot, find a location in which the surroundings won’t take the focus off of your main subject. “I love if there’s a neutral-colored couch or other piece of furniture — nothing that’s too distracting,” says Hollie. “You can position Mom on the couch by herself, or ask the kids to sit on Mom’s lap while she reads them a book.”

Liz recommends taking environmental portraits to offer a real sense of your subject’s personality. “My mom just redid her kitchen, for example, so I took some really lovely shots of her there,” she says. “The surrounding environment that speaks of the time and the place is something that’s often overlooked in portraits like this.” Courtney agrees, adding, “It’s fun to put Mom where she does her everyday things, because that’s what she does, especially if she’s a stay-at-home mom.”

Another fun place to conduct a Mother’s Day photo shoot: in the bedroom. “I like to shoot these types of portraits on a queen-sized or king-sized bed,” says Hollie. “Just cover the bed with a plain-colored blanket or comforter, and you can get Mom and the kids (if they’re in the shot) lying on their stomachs, on their backs, or sitting up. You can also ask them to get down on the floor.”

Courtney has captured similar bedroom portraits (“my comforter is brown, but I just flip it over so I have a natural reflector!”), but she advises that it may take a few minutes to get the setup just right. “I’ll set up a shot like this, then see that there’s a baby monitor in the frame,” she says. “I’ll move that and then see something else. It’s totally worth it once you have your surroundings cleaned up, though, because it looks like a nice, clean bedroom, not a bedroom of a mom with an infant or multiple children, with lots of clutter all over the place.”

Go for a variety of angles to show Mom from different perspectives. “I’m definitely always on her level — if she’s sitting on the ground with the kids, I’m on the ground, too,” says Courtney. “I’m never really above them, unless that’s the specific look I’m going for. The lighting changes at different angles, so sometimes a shadow looks better shooting from the side instead of standing right in front of them.”

“I like twisting my camera to change up the angle, so it’s not always a horizontal, straight-on image,” says Hollie. “It makes such a difference in the pictures. Plus, I have the Tamron 18-270mm zoom lens, so I can get close-ups plus shots from farther away. I can be standing back and they don’t even know I’m taking the pictures because I’m not right on top of them.”

Putting Mom in Her Best Light

If you’re photographing inside, shoot next to the largest window in the house. “My favorite thing is to open all of the blinds, throw all of the curtains back, and just let that natural light shine in,” says Hollie. Liz finds that using natural light also offers an additional benefit: Her subjects relax more. “When I use natural light, even though I might still be shooting with a big camera, it’s not as scary to my subjects as if I had a big flash on top of it, too,” she explains. “They’re not as intimidated by my equipment because I keep it minimal.”

If you’re heading outdoors, overcast days work best for portraits. “I love when it’s a little cloudy, because you get natural light without that bright, harsh glare,” says Hollie. If it’s a sunny day, search out open shade. “You don’t want to photograph Mom at noon outside, because you’re going to get really harsh shadows,” adds Liz. Courtney loves to use backlighting to enhance her images. “I shot the image of the mom in the sunglasses about an hour and a half before sunset,” she says. “I loved how the trees created that bokeh with the light behind them.”

Keeping the focus on Mom and making sure she’s shown at her best and most natural is key to capturing a beautiful Mother’s Day portrait. “If I’m shooting in manual mode with my Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8, for example, I’ll keep my aperture wide open to get that nice, blurred-out background so the viewer can concentrate on Mom,” says Courtney.

Liz also typically aims for a shallow depth-of-field in this type of portrait. “For moms who might be getting older and concerned with things like wrinkles, I would never shoot at, say, F/8,” she says. “I’ll shoot at F/4 or F/5.6, focusing on her eyes, so the background is pretty soft, even though it’s in focus.”

Make sure Mom is relaxed and comfortable. “I’ll often tell them that I’m setting up the metering on my camera and that those shots I’m taking ‘don’t count,’” Courtney laughs. “Those are the ones that come out the best, when we’re just talking and joking around. I also compliment them while I’m shooting and tell them how great they look, showing them the images on the camera’s LCD. It’s amazing how that can loosen them up right away.”

This strategy can produce the best candids. “I really like the ones where subjects don’t know when you’re taking the picture,” says Hollie. “When you tell someone to pose, you get a generic, forced smile. My favorite pictures are always the ones you don’t plan for.”

Getting them to talk about what they love is another way to set them at ease. “My mom is a creative woman, so to get her to relax, I have her talk about what she likes to make and what she’s inspired by right now,” says Liz. “She recently discovered a new recipe and she was telling me about it while I did this photo shoot. The moment she finished speaking was the best photo I got of her that day. You want to engage her on a level that really speaks to her.”

One thing most moms like talking about: their children. “Being a mom is all about the kids, so incorporate them into some of the shots,” says Hollie. “If you get a picture of Mom with her kids and they’re all laughing, you just see that connection they have.”

Think of creative ways to show that powerful motherly bond. “I put my camera on a tripod with a timer and shot my grandma’s hands with my mom’s hands with my hands,” says Liz. “You don’t even have to be wearing makeup for a shot like that. That’s a really sweet image that really speaks to the togetherness and love that’s between the three generations. It’s also fun to set the timer and interject yourself into the shot — set your focus, f-stop, and shutter speed based on the people already in the shot and jump in there!”

Most important, make Mom feel important to evoke emotion that translates into classic photos. “To photograph my grandmother, I went to her nursing home,” says Liz. “She got to get dressed up, and one of the nurses put a little makeup on her. She loved it, and it was a really special shoot for us.”

To see more of Hollie Danklefsen’s work, go to http://realmomsrealviews.com. To see more of Liz Huston’s work, go to www.photomonium.net. To see more of Courtney Slazinik’s work, go to www.clickitupanotch.com.

*Not all images in this series were shot with Tamron lenses.