55 Expanding Your Business Focus
We have spent the majority of the book mastering the concepts of the decisive moment and educated instinct, opening up our minds to the possibility of self-projection into a situation. We have a firm understanding of the verbal and physical cues that help us define moments, and we know how to both anticipate and react to them. We understand the roles of both genuine moments and natural setups. Now that you know how to tackle a wedding in an instinctive photojournalistic style, I’d like to show you how to make these skills do double duty by applying them to photographing children.
From a photojournalistic standpoint, children and weddings are very similar subjects. Both involve a great deal of action, and in order to photograph them well, you need to avoid interacting with the subjects. The subjects must be able to relax and be themselves. There will be tons of activity, and it’s up to you to sort through the multitude of moments to find exactly the right ones.
All of the preparatory actions you took at a wedding apply here. Your camera needs to be ready at any moment, pre-focused whenever possible, and preferably armed with a long zoom lens to allow for distance and privacy. Preparative thinking is an absolute necessity in these situations. Kids, unlike adults, do not care one bit about what you’re trying to accomplish—in fact, if they display much interest in what you’re doing, then you’re likely attacking the situation incorrectly. In order for you to photograph authentic moments, the subjects need to be virtually unaware of you. They need to be free to express themselves normally.
Equipment: Canon EOS-1D Mark III with EF 70–200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens. Exposure: f/3.5 at 
second and ISO 400.
Equipment: Canon EOS-1D Mark III with EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens. Exposure: f/3.2 at second and ISO 200.
Equipment: Canon EOS-1D Mark III with EF 70–200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens. Exposure: f/5.6 at 
second and ISO 200. Focal length: 135mm.
Children are immensely more emotional and acutely more aware of the world than adults. Therefore, photographing children in an emotional way is perhaps the most fitting approach to capturing their joy and mystification. Look for the emotional highs to present themselves. You are not just looking for a smile, or even for them to face you. You are recording joy, wonder, and intrigue—straight, raw emotion in action. Your goal is to capture a moment so charged with impact and resonance that it takes the viewer back to his or her own childhood.
Keep an eye out for behavior that signifies childhood—or, more specifically, behavior that showcases the personality of the child you’re photographing.
