Smile, baby

Two-year-old Olivia Ficke-Anderson is primped, pretty and sitting patiently in a little white chair on fake grass in the Sears Portrait Studio at the Meadows mall.

A few feet to Olivia's left is her anxious mother, Christy Ficke. Mother and child have been through this routine before. Twice.

Olivia wears a yellow dress, matching ribbon in her hair and is positively photo-ready. Mom, on the other hand, is somewhat harried and admittedly nervous.

"The last time we did this I wanted to tip the girl a million dollars," Ficke says, clearly not wanting a repeat of her child's most recent visit to the photographer a little more than a year ago. "We spent 45 minutes in there. But she was so patient, so willing to try everything to get Olivia to smile.

"She wasn't in a good mood that day."

But she is on this one, as Sears photographer Jen Knight playfully taunts Olivia with a stuffed yellow duck.

"Tickle, tickle, tickle!," says Knight, pushing the furry animal toward Olivia's face. "Here comes the ducky ... and there's mommy!"

Olivia then breaks her pose, turns to her mother and points to herself.

"And here's Olivia!"

Cut. Wrong answer. Start over.

Knight, herself expecting a child in a month, finally settles a giggling Olivia down into a stately pose and snaps off a series of oh-so-darling photographs.

The shoot -- or "sitting" in kiddie photogrpaher-speak -- is wrapped up in a crisp 20 minutes. That's about as stress-free a sitting for a 2-year-old as the Sears staff can expect.

"It's a pleasure to have a good 2-year-old," Knight says. "It's an unpredictable age. Sometimes they're very pleasant and cooperative, but there are times ..."

Times when the 2-year-olds fidget, fight or freeze with fright.

"The last time I brought Olivia was when she was about 10 months old, and she just would not smile," Ficke says. "She just sat and stared. They tried everything, but she just sat and stared and wouldn't budge.

"We had nine poses, and I'd say four were usable. It was a lot better today."

Olivia, despite having tousled her own carefully cultivated blond hair, concurs: "I was good today!"

Even Olivia's 45-minute marathon sitting didn't approach what is believed to be the all-time company record: two hours. Knight and Marlene Gonzalez, the Sear Portrait Studio manager, tag-teamed that sitting, which involved four kids ranging from a 3-month-old to an 8-year-old.

"That was a long, long sitting," Gonzalez says. "There was such a range of ages. But we got through it and got the family what they wanted."

At Sears, which has been in the family portrait business for 40 years, photographers use their ever-expanding imaginations to get children to sit still and -- ideally -- smile.

"We use everything," Gonzalez says. "We'll try anything. Yesterday I ran out of ideas and I just started jumping up and down. I've had siblings stand to the side and throw balls at me, I dance around and sing Barney songs or the ABCs, just to get them to pay attention."

Newborns pose an entirely different set of challenges.

"We've had newborns come in the very day they are born," Gonzalez says. "Are they going to smile? No. They might not even open their eyes. But the parents don't know that, and to try to get any kind of response from a newborn is extremely hard."

(A note to parents of infants: The Sears staff strongly recommends not feeding or bathing your child immediately before his or her photo shoot. Otherwise, it's snooze city.)

Even for older kids, the three small photo studios at Sears can seem a bit claustrophobic. The idea is to have the child's eyes lock in on the camera, set up just a few feet away, and hold still for further instructions.

The parents and photographer can view the child on a nearby computer screen. When the child produces a photogenic smile, the photographer fires off a shot using a remote-control device that can position the camera and operate the shutter.

"It's important to remember that kids don't like strangers sometimes and can be bothered by people coming in and out. They don't always feel comfortable," Gonzalez says. "The most important thing is to get the child into the frame. Then, you can work with them."

Props include any number of stuffed animals, giant crayons, miniature soccer balls, baseball gloves and telephones, and a couple dozen backdrops ranging from Winnie the Pooh to cumulous clouds.

"Anything you want, we can do," Gonzalez says. "We have lots of different things right at our fingertips and we can change a setting pretty fast."

Although advertised as a portrait studio of all ages, Sears specializes in children (particularly infants).

"We'll take any age, but mainly we get the little ones," Gonzalez says. "From newborns up to 7-year-olds. But infants, especially with young first-time parents, give us a lot of business."

Business bustles during four traditional family holidays: Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day and Father's Day.

"During the Easter rush, you couldn't walk through this place," Gonzalez says. "It was total madness. You don't look too good after a day like that. You're tired."

One day during the Easter rush, a staff of four photographers handled 190 sittings in 10 hours. That's the average workload for an entire week during nonpeak periods.

The busiest period, not surprisingly, is Christmas.

"The Christmas season begins in late-September, early October for us," Gonzalez says. "We average about 400 sittings in a week."

The price is reasonable, too. The basic photo packet costs around $20. Ficke spent a little less than $100 for her package of nine sheets of photos in varying sizes.

Customers can view the contact sheets immediately after the shoot. The final package arrives in about two weeks.

"It's really cheap considering what you get," Ficke says. "You can pay more than $100 just for the sitting at some photo studios, and that's not even counting the pictures themselves. They do a good job here and the pictures look good.

"It's not the place you'd have your engagement photos taken, but they do really fun children's shots."

Business is also brisk because new parents feel the family pressure (especially from grandparents) to keep those photos coming.

The Tesch family is a case in point. Mother and father (both named Jody, as it turns out) escorted their 3-month-old son Justin for the first of what should be monthly visits to the kiddie photogs.

"Everyone wants pictures, it's crazy," father Jody Tesch says. "We don't even need a growth chart for Justin. We'll just use the pictures."

Especially challenging are young siblings. Repeat customer Courtnie Smith brought her 3-year-old son Brock and 5-month-old daughter Haylie to be photographed together and individually.

"We're here a lot," Courtnie Smith says. "We've been here three times since Hailey was born."

The first request from Courtnie Smith, carrying a bulky photo album filled with photos of both kids, is for a "duplicate" shot. Brock, at 5 months, was posed in a wash tub with a towel hanging over the side and a container of Johnson's Baby Powder in front.

Now it's little sister's turn.

"We get a lot of requests for this," photographer Ami Bornheimer says. "Parents really like the same pose at the same age."

Haylie's individual shoot goes smoothly. And, with a little prodding, so does Brock's, who's posed standing next to a big white "3" to indicate his age.

Next is the shot of both kids. Bornheimer says it's easier to pose kids together after they've been photographed individually rather than before.

"They're more used to being up there posing after doing it alone," she says. "If you try doing them together first, they're moving around and playing with each other and goofing off. It can be very difficult."

Even for a couple of miniature modeling veterans such as Brock and Haylie, this particular sitting is fraught with obstacles -- mostly because of Brock, who handles his baby sister like any other prop.

"Now Brock, put your hand on Hailey's shoulder," Bornheimer says. "Kind of hold her up if you can."

Brock smiles and puts his hand on Haylie's shoulder. Then he puts his hand on Hailey's head. Both laugh.

"Brock, behave," his mother commands. "You know better."

Brock demurs and returns his hand to the shoulder. Then to the head. More laughing. The scene is repeated, to the dismay of both photographer and mother, until Brock finally tires of the routine.

It's only then that Bornheimer is able to fire off a series of perfect child portraits. Never does she display signs of impatience.

"I'm doing this because I love kids, not because I love photography," Bornheimer says. "The only reason I applied is because I love spending time with children."

That's the key, Gonzalez says.

"It's not true photography. You can learn the camera in a day, maybe less," Gonzalez says. "You're trying to get smiles and reaction and it's all about perfect timing. Our saying is, 'you hire the smile and learn the skill.'

"You have to be able to be silly and you have to be able to be a clown. If you're shy, this is not for you."

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