Kids have a great imagination. They can turn everything into a real life experience as if they just experienced everything themselves. You can throw them different ideas and suggestions and they would act it out without doubts. They are such great dreamers with a vivid imagination.

For this photography, I wanted to make a marine or nautical theme but without having to include the water, the boat, and everything. These kids say that they could have acted it out as if they were being on a boat or a ship and they were being offshore. So I took their words to the heart and started making preparations for the photo.

The Preparation

There wasn’t anything fussy or complicated about the preparation. All I had to do was to prepare stripes elbow length shirts – which are so nautical. I picked blue because it would represent everything nautical – the blue sky, the blue water, and the blue background drop. I just picked the different shades of blue for the older sister (with a darker blue shade) so the shirts would look similar and yet have different shades and tone. The kids simply wore their favorite jeans – and the older sister wanted to fold the bottom ends a little upward.

They were sitting on the wooden floor, representing the deck of the ship. The background was a simple plain wall (cream, if I wasn’t mistaken) as if they were surrounded by the atmosphere of the ship itself. They were sitting and gathering in the middle as if they were in a small wooden ship, ready to sail through the water. They had their binoculars and everything ready so they could start their journey.

The Additional Props

To strengthen the nautical sense photography, I included some props and accessories that are related to the marine, water, and nautical. You can see the old-school and antique globe – which is important in every sail and water cruise. There was also a blue nautical buoy and the wooden wheel on the background. There was also a miniature sailing ship and a shell close to the kids, enhancing the atmosphere that they were being aboard the ship, instead of the floor.

They were great to work with. They came up with ideas of doing amazing poses so it would really look like they were sailing and ready to take some actions on the water. I picked this photo especially because of its simplicity. And yet it holds a lot of meaning.