22 May Father And Son: Super Hero Shoot
Let me start this post off with something I know I’ve disclosed a number of times, and that is I LOVE MY JOB. Ok, now onto the post. The idea for doing a father-son super hero shoot was born a couple months ago in my mind. I’m always coming up with ideas to generate new and fresh shoots, so I sketch them and I have a bank of ideas waiting to draw from when the right client comes around. They get a quick, fun idea tossed at them, and we both get a matured concept from day one, so it works out. Some ideas that sit in that bank of sketches can eat at you though. You see those images in your mind you want to make, you are dying to see them in the portfolio and enjoyed by all to see. This was one of those, one that as the weeks and months passed, I got more upset with the fact that I hadn’t made them a reality. I can obviously put that to rest, at least for a week or two, as this is just the beginning of a series I’m aiming at producing for my clients. Like a TV series, the concepts for these super hero shoots will get deeper and deeper, telling a different story each time. I’m pretty excited about it, and the ideas are already stacking up. The ink is on paper, ideas, that just like this one, will pop to life in the near future. Family photography executed on a commercial scale, it’s going to be awesome, and future clients are going to be hanging some absolutely gorgeous products on their walls. Prints that I wish I had of me and my father from when I was little. I don’t know what I’d pay to get my hands on something this special that documented my childhood, my father and I dressed up as super heroes. Does it get any better than this? No matter how old the parents and children grow, they will always love these photos. I want a time machine so I can do this! But this is the whole point. Making impactful images, it’s why I wake up every day.
I thoroughly enjoy all of my photo shoots, but this one is really up there. I was laughing the whole time we made the photos. I’d like to introduce Batman and Spider-Man, you may have heard of them, otherwise known as Ryan and Owen. I trust now that since I’ve revealed these brave heroes’ names you will not be running off to tell their arch enemies, that wouldn’t be cool. Before we get too far into this shoot, I do want to give Ryan credit for posing all over Tacoma as a grown man in a hero costume. Of course when you have a cute little 3-year-old running by your side as Spider-Man it instantly goes from awkward to super cute. Everyone that walked by definitely was loving it, some stopping to say how awesome it was. I also have to acknowledge Owen, and his excellent patience with our shoot. Kids that age have the attention span of, well… a 3-year-old, and asking more than 30 seconds out of them is seriously pushing it. Amazingly, he performed well for the duration of the shoot, which was a couple hours in total with all the locations. I’m sure it helped that he got to run around as a super hero. Every once in a while Ryan would lean over and give me the, “Dude, I don’t look like a complete ass, right?” My response, “I wish you were my dad and I had these photos when I was a kid, you’ve got nothing to worry about.” And it’s true, the photos turned out great, and Ryan is the super dad everyone dreams of being to their kids.
Spider-Man snatching Batman’s chips.
The heroes arrived to the studio in dramatic fashion.
One Word. Guns.
At 3, Owen is just getting to that age where this super hero stuff is fun. Ryan was telling me that he’d been in character all day, with Owen correcting people and referring to himself as Spider-Man, “Owen isn’t here, I’m Spider-Man.” It was super cute when we were doing the playground portion of the shoot. A little girl walked up to him and goes, “are you Spider-Man?” It took Owen a second, but he replied with a very slow, methodical answer, “Yes…Yes I am Spider-Man.” And with all kids that age, their boundless, tireless imaginations spawn some of the most silly, random statements out of their mouths. If you could take the mind of a 3-year-old and stuff it in an adult body you’d have the perfect standup comedian.
Up until writing this post right now, I’ve experience a very wide range of emotions with this shoot. During the physical shoot, I was laughing and having fun and really excited that these images were finally out of my head and on my camera. While editing them, I again seriously wished I had images like this from when I was a kid, they are just so fun. What a great way to document this stage of your child’s life and your parenthood. Some of the shots are silly, some over-the-top dramatic, and some are extremely touching how Owen is looking at and holding onto his father. And, of course, I was still laughing at little Owen through the editing process and the range of expressions that graced his face.
The goal of this specific hero series was to show that “every day” kind of feel. I wanted it to be apparent that this was just a father and son having a good time, and not trying to make it look too perfect or neat. It was a father dressing up for his son, ’cause what kid wouldn’t find that fun? That’s why my favorite photos out of the bunch are ones where they are doing every day things like going on the swings, walking down the street, and eating chips. It was especially funny when Owen reached over and stole some chips out of Ryan bag. Maybe this wouldn’t normally be funny, but posed as two super heroes, yes, it is very funny. I lit them dramatically, and edited them with a gritty style to give them the comic book feel.
Traversing the challenging gap.
Juice Boxin’ after a hard night of fighting crime.
To the Batmobile.
In the spirit of making photos to document such over-before-you-know-it times, I’m super proud that we can go beyond the simple standing and sitting shots that a lot of people do because they might not be aware of another option. And as busy parents, with no time to yourselves for thinking about all of this stuff, well… that’s why Matty Photography is here. We are here to capture these moments of time, but more importantly, we are here to make those frozen moments super awesome, fun, unique, and photos that leave your friends and family saying, “that’s so awesome, I want one!” I am here to make your visual dreams come true, I put everything I got into it. If this is something you want to do, please let me know, don’t let this great time in your life of parenthood go by without doing something like this to remember it. Quite honestly, I’m jealous that Ryan and Owen right now! 🙂
Now… you’ll have to excuse me as I go dress up like a super hero and run down the streets of Tacoma.
