Taking a picture of your kids is so much harder than it looks. There is no one behind you trying to get their attention and the second your face goes behind that camera they turn around and give anything BUT eye contact to the camera. My oldest toddler daughter is what I would call the "AVOIDER" toddler type. A camera comes out and she WILL NOT LOOK AT IT. My youngest daughter on the other hand is a "HAM" She is the one that gives the good ole CHEESE face everytime the camera comes out. This is great, but I don't need 10000 pictures of the same face in every single setting. So whether your kid is Camera Shy, or a Camera Hog, I hope you can find a couple tips and tricks to get a well rounded amount of shots on your next family photoshoot.
When you are in a setting that you know you want to get the best photos of your kids get your settings ALLLLLLLLLL READY before you try to wrangle the kids and start shooting. Test the settings on the landscape and random subjects. Toddlers have a VERY short attention span and are not up for photos for very long. Oh and make sure your memory card was empty before you started if at all possible. You are gonna shoot like there is no tomorrow.
Tip 2 : Start with shots of them just playing. I know that the longer I shoot the better I get. If we are at the park (or in these photos case, the beach) I get my camera all dialed in and start documenting all the things that are already happening. Playing in the sand, eating snacks, the pier, and them naturally interacting with each other and friends. If you are at the park get some photos of their hands on monkey bars, them going down the slide... those type of activities that you know you want to remember but are not exactly time and toddler attention focused.
This is the HAM I mentioned earlier.. She is super easy, this is me telling her to say Cheese... When the camera comes out she has a hard time ignoring it to keep playing. So with her I have to have the camera out for awhile and taking pictures of not her before she will start ignoring it.
Tip 3: Get the tiny details. Start with the hands and feet and start getting closer to the kiddos with the camera. Take off the zoom lens and start playing. get closer. This could definitely be happening in the previous tip as well, but just start engaging and warming the kids up.
Tip 4: Pick an activity. With my older daughter ( the AVOIDER) here I chose to have her go play by the water. She likes to play a game where she runs to the edge of the water and then, as the waves rise, she bolts back towards the shore straight at me and grabs my legs. PERFECT. As I said earlier she is a camera avoider. (I could fill two full albums with the back of her head, and I am not exaggerating.) So finding an activity where she HAS to face towards me is key. If you are at a park or a family gathering, possibly play hide and seek, or have a friend or sibling play chase. Kids LOVE repetition games. Usually they can get old real fast, but when you are getting pictures... the more times they play the better. With each wave crashing I could fire off between 2-7 photos of her. You have to anticipate the good part and when they smile.
this is seriously one of 3 images from that session where she is looking directly into the camera.. out of over 75... And that is totally ok.
the "avoider" in full force, looking at my feet but not the camera... I was squatting for crying out loud.. hahahaha
Here are some good examples and some bad ones. This is my personal taste on what makes a better image.
This photo is the bad example. It isn't a terrible photo, but it is visually distracting and not super clear.
Another bad example. There is a tent in the background and my sister is crouching weird and in an awkward movement. Plus Carly looks like she is ignoring my sister and the emotion I feel when looking at this is meh...
This is the good example. No more tent, my sister is now on the same level as my daughter and they are working together in a movement which gives the feeling that they are working together rather than being forced into a photo.
Here is a bad example. It is a pretty good photo and I actually still love it ( that tends to happen when it is your kid in the photos.. occupational hazard. hahaha ) But the beach was REALLY busy that day. there were people within 20 feet of us on all sides. That makes for SUPER crowded and cluttered photos. No one likes a random dude in their picture of their adorable kids.
This photo is the good example. I didn't disrupt my daughter as she played (because she was adorable and I liked the idea of the previous shot, it just needed to cut out the weirdo guy)
So I took a few steps closer and went from a squat position to a standing position. I was now positioned slightly above her and could crop out all the noise of the people at the beach. looks much more visually pleasing. (but I would say that if there weren't people on the beach I would have LOVED the above image positioning.)
Tip 5: Have fun. Make sure you are making this experience a fun one. LIFESTYLE Photography is capturing memories and REAL emotions. No pressure to get portraits. No perfect smile and amazing eye contact in every shot. You will look back on these photos and remember what was going on when you took them. Make sure it isn't you yelling to your kids, "JUST SIT STILL FOR TWO SECONDS!!!" Joke with your kids, take a break if it isn't working. Life will always be going on. Try again tomorrow. Make memories and don't just worry about creating the perfect shot.
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