The Cramer Twins, I still can't tell them apart...

For a feature on the first round of the soccer playoffs one of our reporters was doing a feature on Wylie High School's Courtney and Caitlin Cramer. They are standouts on both the soccer and tennis teams. They are the defending Class 3A state champions in girls doubles in tennis, and they are both starters on the soccer team. The request for the photo came in kind of late, the reporter called me as I was heading home on Thursday night and the story was running Monday, the only time I could shoot it was on Friday after practice, the same time I was shooting a baseball game, luckily it was on the same campus, so I could go shoot the portrait and only miss a few innings of the game.

Since I was shooting this on a tight time schedule, I didn't have time to set up lights along with finding power for them etc. So, I just used two strobes on light stands, they are more portable and you don't need to plug anything in, the only difference is they don't put out as much power, but for something like this, that wasn't a problem. I just needed to get enough light on their faces to balance the light. And, after getting the two to lighten up (keep reading), the portrait was really east to shoot.

The funny part about the Cramers is they never look happy, I wasn't really sure what to expect of the two of them. After practice they went and changed into their uniforms, they still looked hesitant. That's pretty normal though, most kids do before having their photos taken, it's my job to make them comfortable. As we were walking over to the tennis courts I asked them about always looking miserable when they played tennis. The answer I got was unexpected, one of them points to the other (even after shooting the portrait I couldn't tell them apart, I made the note at the end of the shoot to get them right for the paper) and says, "she always pisses me off, it happens just about every match." After that, things went really well, they were actually really sweet and even smiled for the photos and it turned out better than I expected. They are just very competitive. I can't complain about that, I'm often told I look pissed off when I'm shooting a lot of times too.