This little princess is getting harder and harder to photograph! Fortunately, I have some tricks up my sleeve from being a children’s photographer for over 10 years. I’m so excited to share five of my favorites here with you all today!!
1. Get everything ready before you get baby ready! As you all know babies and toddlers don’t sit still for more than a few seconds. So it’s best to get everything you want in the picture ready before you get baby ready. For this shoot, I: picked where I wanted to do the pictures; got my camera set the way I wanted it; got the pillow and dolls ready; and picked out Claire’s outfit. Then when I was all ready to shoot we dressed Claire.
2. Bribes, it starts young and I use it forever on everyone I photograph, lol! Special treats or prizes work and it’s different for every baby, child and up. I usually use something to encourage my kiddos to do a good job. Today for Claire it was pieces of M and M’s. She doesn’t normally get them so she was very interested and sat still a few seconds longer while she nibbled on her tasty treat!
3. Move around, this means move the baby or toddler and move yourself. If you change the angle you are shooting from you have a better chance of getting lots of different interesting and great shots. I shoot from above, the side, straight on and just keep moving around.
4. Be silly! This one may be obvious but I spend a lot of time jumping up and down, making silly and loud sounds. Anything I can think of to get and keep their attention. Today I had to pick Claire up and toss her on the pillow several times to get her to smile, swing her, and continuously tickle her to keep her attention on me. It’s exhausting but so worth it!
5. Know when it’s time to quit. I really try hard not to push my kiddos too far when taking their pictures. I want them to want to do it again next time, and to remember it as fun, even if it’s a little crazy. So when they start getting too fussy or just aren’t interested I call it quits!
I hope you enjoyed these photographing tips! I’d love to hear if this was helpful and if you’d like me to share more blog posts like this! Head back over to our @livesweet IG page and let me know what you think!! XO Lindsey
Darling Swans by Cuddle and Kind
Tutu by Plum NYC
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