Keeping the Photography Props Happy !

Pin It One of the greatest joys I find when working outside for portrait photography is nature itself. About 18 months ago I was walking through a local park looking for good backgrounds for a shoot I had planned for the following week.

Whilst I was in the park I noticed the squirrels searching for food, I began to wonder how brave they were and set about a plan to turn them into photographic props.

For two weeks I would turn up leave a large pile of nuts and fire off my camera (no film) just to get them used to the sound. Soon they began to associate the noise with food and completely lost any fear of the noise (and by this time attached flash).

I now decided to take them a stage further and started to feed them by hand whilst firing off the camera. It took a while but the larger ones soon realised I wasn't a threat and began to feed eagerly.

Today they come running when they hear the camera shutter, so much so that I have to avoid that area of the park when I'm working until I'm ready for them. They work fantasticly and the kids love it totally forgetting about me and the camera allowing me to capture some fantastic images.

I try not to over use the squirrels as I believe it's important that they continue on their daily lives searching for food rather than relying solely on me. But for those occasions when I want that extra special portrait with a young child who may be a bit shy or a special bridal image, they're unbeatable.

Yes it's taken a while (over a year) to get to this stage but now we have a great working relationship and I don't know of another photographer in the UK / World who has props like I do. Personally I much prefer something like this to a studio ultra boring white background shot, but then again everyone has differant opinions.