A week ago, I got the opportunity to take pictures of a three-year-old little girl named Charlotte. Her dad listens to the show each week, happens to live in the same city, so he contacted me to do her three-year-old pics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Initially, he was thinking of a park or something, but in the interview process, I convinced them that often, a home environment is better for children’s pics. They feel more comfortable, and there is less pressure for them to perform or pose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For me, the goal we focus on when taking pics of kids is to capture them being themselves, better to do that, than in their own home, doing the same things they do every day. So the first trick to kid pics is to make them comfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Secondly, and this is a big one, the kid is the one in charge. Not you, and certainly not the parents. That is right, not the parents. The parents tend to try and “make” the kids do certain things and pose specific ways, and at that age, they tend to resist. When they do resist, the parents push harder, and the whole thing can devolve into crying very quickly. So the first set of instructions I give to the parents is to back off whenever their child starts to resist. The last thing we want is a crying, angry kid. Although I will say that crying photos can be very cool from an artistic standpoint. But on the whole, if we can avoid it, the better. Just relax, Mom, we will get some good pics. Promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most parents are surprised that any good photos were achieved when I go and shoot them. But I am pretty stubborn, and I don’t give up. Fortune favors the photographer with persistence and a big memory card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once you have the kid comfortable with their surroundings, just let the kid be, and you shoot. It’s OK to try and set things up, and I do that all the time, but you should focus on setting up something that the kid likes to do anyway. Charlotte loved to read, she loved watching Dora the Explorer videos, and she dearly loved to sing. So that is what we focused on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lastly, and anyone that has taken my business class knows, the interview is huge. I meet with every customer physically before the actual shoot. It helps kids because they get a chance to meet you first. This way, they already kind of know who you are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So there are my few tips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of you guys are location photographers. Meaning you go to where the customer is. You take all of your gear, meet the customer at a park, or head to their house. So we have a mental checklist that we follow when packing our gear to ensure we don’t forget anything. Well, here are ten more essentials to pack up when children are involved in the shoot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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A week ago, I got the opportunity to take pictures of a three-year-old little girl named Charlotte. Her dad listens to the show each week, happens to live in the same city, so he contacted me to do her three-year-old pics. Initially, he was thinking of a park or something, but in the interview process, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n