Family portraits with our chickens

[jonaeselaye]

Hi BYC!
Back on the 1st of Dec we got professional portraits with our chickens done. It took so long to get the photos so I'm a little over excited and keen to share them with fellow chicken lovers

 

[Ribh]

Absolutely lovely!

 

[meetthebubus]

You should share a bit of the experience what was it like? Did they behave, was the photographer surprised

 

[Callender Girl]

Theses are BEAUTIFUL! I have had portrait shots with individual goats and dogs, but I can't imagine how much work went into getting the entire flock to cooperate at once. Your photographer did a great job, and you all look wonderful in your "family portrait."

 

[Melky]

Love the photos. Makes me want to do it but also have a dog. Probably have to do separate. I don’t know how you got them to sit still? Beautiful!

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

So cute! I wanted to do this for our christmas card. Im sure it took forever to get the right shot.

 

[jonaeselaye]

You should share a bit of the experience what was it like? Did they behave, was the photographer surprised

Thank you for the lovely comments

The experience:

This photoshoot almost never happened. We were offered a free couples photoshoot + photo voucher by the studio and they called us back in October to book a time. Before booking an appointment, I read about the company online and saw a lot of negative complaints about the prices of the photos even if you had a voucher. So we thought, if we’re going to be pressured into buying overpriced images we may as well make them unique as we can get normal couple photos any time. We called them back and asked if we can bring our pet chickens along, the studio was very excited and thought it would be an interesting idea so we booked the photoshoot for November.

Unfortunately we had to cancel our booking twice, the first time because we weren’t feeling well and the second time because one of our chickens was hospitalised the night before the photoshoot for CRD. She wasn’t one of the chickens we were bringing along but having to run back and forth to the vet was too stressful on the day so we called to cancel. The studio were really understanding and let us rebook for December.

The day of the photoshoot was really hot (first day of summer) so we were really worried about the chickens overheating. The photographer and studio staff really loved the chickens and were always checking in to make sure they were okay. They put the air con on full blast and kept coming back and forth with water. The photographer grew up on a farm in the UK so she was experienced with handling chickens and interacting with them.

Admittedly, one the main reasons why the photos turned out well is because we decided to only bring our silkies (not our energetic sex links). The silkies, being silkies, just stood in the same spot looking around In confusion. Our Australorp x roo is also pretty docile, he explored the studio a bit but if he photographer picked him up and placed him somewhere he stayed there. Another trick was, there was frozen corn and watermelon in that blue pot and also scattered around the flowers. It really helped with keeping the chickens in the same spot but that’s why in some photos a few of the faces are buried in the flowers.

The only real challenge was that the staff were constantly cleaning up the poop. I don’t know if it was nerves or the heat but for some reason that day all the chickens was off loading giant turds every 10 minutes. In the photo where my boyfriend is sitting on the chair and there Vanessa on his lap, he’s smiling but a seconds before the photo was taken Vanessa unleashed explosive poop all over his pants. The photographer either just took the photo at the right angle or photoshopped it out but it was pretty bad

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

Im afraid as you stated it was photoshoped out. They did quite a good job as no one who doesn't use it frequently would observe it. For those of us who do...i see poo lol

 

[drumstick diva]

shame on Vanessa, she was a naughty girl

 

[meetthebubus]

The silkies, being silkies, just stood in the same spot looking around In confusion.

That line is so funny to me! how cute!

Thanks for sharing!