Rae and Ada | Portrait Shoot Winners

Earlier in the summer I held a prize draw on facebook for someone to win a free portrait shoot. A rubber duck with Rae and Ada's name on was pulled out of a box, and so we set about making some pictures..

We started off at Green City Coffee, a new cafe in Kelham Island with the friendliest staff you could wish for. Pop in if you like retro furniture, sumptuous milkshakes, good teas and a friendly face. They will be stocking some of my cards soon too, just as soon as I finish making the stand. 

After that we pottered about Kelham Island going at the pace of an involved toddler. I quickly abandoned my best laid plans and remembered that when little people are involved it's way better to follow their lead. Ada was a huge amount of fun - curious about everything, knew her own mind, and wanted to climb on everything ... she reminded me of me as a kid (and me as an adult actually!). I loved seeing these two interact, Rae was so permission giving for Ada's various explorations.

It was lovely to step back from doing work for money and instead to offer this as pure gift. I've been doing this a bit more recently and it has noticably revitalised how I feel about my paid photography work. It is pleasing that the gift I gave of a free shoot could also return and be gift for me too. So, there will be another free prize draw coming up on facebook in the Autumn.

It was also a good opportunity to experiment with doing a shoot using just a 35mm fixed lens rather than my 24mm-70mm. I enjoyed the limitation of one focal length and how that made me inhabit my body more to get in the right spot for what I wanted to see, rather than just twist the zoom. It's good to experiment with these things and not get too stuck in old habits.

All images ©KateCooperPhotography2013