More long underwear, please!
This morning, I had another photo shoot. It involved getting up *before* the crack of dawn and driving 60 miles north. This morning is when autumn finally chose to arrive at my little corner of Metrowest, and it was extra crispy out. I had to scrape off the car before peeling out into the darkness (oh, where did I put those snow tools last spring?). The thermometer on my dashboard registered just a few degrees above freezing. However, much as I dislike getting up so early, there was something rather tranquil about watching the light grow little by little as I headed up 495.
Once I arrived on site, I and the other photographers continued to shiver for the next several hours. I had put on a thermal shirt, but have made a mental note that next time I must include long underwear bottoms and my "30 Below" brand wool socks to go inside my waterproof shoes. It didn't warm up to a decent level until about 10:30.
It was a relatively easy day, shoot-wise. Each of us only had a couple teams to take care of. It was all girls' teams, fairly young kids (under 10). Unlike some towns, where the teams are named after business sponsors or something blatantly sportsy and aggressive sounding like the Rockets or the Revolution, this bunch were named after rather fluffy fantasy animals and harmless sea creatures. The toughest sounding team was the Sea Lions. Hey, whatever :-)
I still get a real lift out of being able to make the kids smile well for the camera, but I'm starting to think that it's not just about me and my persuasiveness; it probably depends a lot on them and their teams, too. One entire group had fabulous smiles to the last girl and, upon me telling each of them that they had great smiles, even surpassed fabulous. I have a feeling that if they arrive with great morale and mesh well with their teammates and their coach, they're going to be great photographic subjects.
Sometimes, though, I have seen kids turn around completely from hesitant, fake, or gloomy looking to sparkly while I'm getting them set up, which is why I thought it might have something to do with me. I just never used to think of myself as a "kid person", probably dating back to when I was in elementary school and a toddler my older sister used to babysit at our house would scream bloody murder every time she saw me. (It bothered me enough that once when I had to go through the room they were in, I put on a disguise.)
One last thing -- I always enjoy finding out what kids these days are getting named. My two favorite girls' names so far (among the under-10 soccer set) were Autumn and Montana.
So... my education continues.
Once I arrived on site, I and the other photographers continued to shiver for the next several hours. I had put on a thermal shirt, but have made a mental note that next time I must include long underwear bottoms and my "30 Below" brand wool socks to go inside my waterproof shoes. It didn't warm up to a decent level until about 10:30.
It was a relatively easy day, shoot-wise. Each of us only had a couple teams to take care of. It was all girls' teams, fairly young kids (under 10). Unlike some towns, where the teams are named after business sponsors or something blatantly sportsy and aggressive sounding like the Rockets or the Revolution, this bunch were named after rather fluffy fantasy animals and harmless sea creatures. The toughest sounding team was the Sea Lions. Hey, whatever :-)
I still get a real lift out of being able to make the kids smile well for the camera, but I'm starting to think that it's not just about me and my persuasiveness; it probably depends a lot on them and their teams, too. One entire group had fabulous smiles to the last girl and, upon me telling each of them that they had great smiles, even surpassed fabulous. I have a feeling that if they arrive with great morale and mesh well with their teammates and their coach, they're going to be great photographic subjects.
Sometimes, though, I have seen kids turn around completely from hesitant, fake, or gloomy looking to sparkly while I'm getting them set up, which is why I thought it might have something to do with me. I just never used to think of myself as a "kid person", probably dating back to when I was in elementary school and a toddler my older sister used to babysit at our house would scream bloody murder every time she saw me. (It bothered me enough that once when I had to go through the room they were in, I put on a disguise.)
One last thing -- I always enjoy finding out what kids these days are getting named. My two favorite girls' names so far (among the under-10 soccer set) were Autumn and Montana.
So... my education continues.