game of hide and seek. Stacy says, “We will stomp the
piece of tape, touch it with our fingers, spin on it, etc. It
becomes a focal point to distract the child from leaving
the set.” They have one rule: never get off the seamless
paper—and don’t let Mommy off either.
Stacy also has some favorite requests to get the child
motivated. “Go to your spot and I will tickle mommy
with the feather,” she’ll say. Or she might ask, “How high
can you jump? Show me while you are standing on your
spot!” Here’s another technique—and it sounds bizarre,
but it works: “Holding from behind, I pick up the child
and spin him around in circles and then see if he can
‘hide’ the piece of tape with his foot. It is unbelievable!
It works every time. (They are also quite dizzy and can-
not move from that area yet anyway.)”
Stacy repeats her disciplined stance with compassion,
“It is hard to listen to a child fuss for even five minutes,
but if you let them off the set just because they would
rather play on the floor, the next time they are put on the
set, they will fuss even longer. Do you know why? Be-
cause, it worked the first time. The child knows that your
will power is not as strong as his or hers.” Game over.
Climbing.“If all else fails,” says Stacy, “get some type
of chair or box and put them in it to climb out—or chal-
lenge them to climb in. If I put a chair down in the set,
I will have my assistant, Mommy, and myself sit on the
chair in succession. I never ask the child to sit in the chair,
but they areverysure that they are supposed to have the
chair and not the grown ups. So guess what? They want
to sit on and possess the chair for quite a long time.”
Turn off the Overhead Lights.Another excellent trick
with mobile toddlers is to turn off the overhead lights.
Says Stacy, “My studio becomes very dark if I turn off the
overhead lights. Occasionally, this will scare a toddler and
the lights must remain on. But I have learned through
experience that a toddler cannot see past the light box
after a few flashes have been fired. If they do not know
what is there, they are less lightly to want to go to it.”
The Tickle Feather.Stacy’s tickle feather (a bunch of
feathers on a stick) is used for every age group except
newborns. For a child between the ages of three and
seven months, the feather is used as a focusing object to
direct the child’s gaze toward the camera.
As a child is able to sit up, it becomes more useful and
fun. Usually the feather is introduced by showing it to
Mom first. If Mom then introduces the feather to the82 CHILDREN’S PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY HANDBOOK
Stacy’s techniques are designed to stimulate a child in a positive
and safe way. She goes to extremes to create a welcome and happy
environment. This two-year-old seems to appreciate the effort.
Stacy’s containment box comes in handy as a posing bench for
these two cowboys. One of main ingredients of Stacy’s portraits is
the great variety of expressions. She says she gets at least sixty dif-
ferent expressions from an average photo session.