I’m Tabitha and I’m a family photographer in the Washington DC area! I offer lifestyle family and newborn sessions. One of the things I want families to have from their photo session is photos of memories and moments that they want to remember.
When I am taking photos of parents and children I tend to try and work fast and efficient and I find myself using similar strategies when taking photos of my own child.
Children can be sometimes unpredictable and their feelings can be fleeting so it’s important to find trust and build engagement and interest for capturing those little moments.
These photos were taken in our backyard during the azalea blooms. My daughter’s favorite color is pink and I thought it would be fitting to have a mini photo shoot of her with the blooms.
You’ll come to read that the blooms were only part of the story and interest in the photos. She quickly decided to move onto other things that were interesting to her!
in this blog post I’ve listed out some tips for taking photos of your children:
Tip #1 Visual Interest
Mine here is the bright pink azalea blooms! I was looking for any way I could include the pinks into the images of her playing and exploring. It was perfect because it matched the colors in her cute little spring/summer dress.
Tip #2 Let them be shy
She thought it was so funny to run away from me and not let me take a photo of her in between dandelion picking. I embraced this game of “gonna get you” and chased her and loved capturing those funny little expressions of her trying to be clever.
Tip #3 Encourage exploration
We have a few different trees that are good for her age and climbing. I actually caught this right as she started climbing when she felt stuck and she couldn’t get down. It was actually quite funny. I did of course help her but first I had to take a photo of the mild struggle.
Tip #4 - Follow their ideas
My daughter was on a mission to find dandelions. Her idea worked out so well because she quickly lost interest in the ideas I had when I wanted to photograph her with the pink blooms. She was over it! We did get a few of what I wanted so I shifted to following her lead and her idea to find the dandelions.
A lot of the time children have some great ideas and it’s nice to follow their lead!
Tip #5 Capture the details
This one is self explanatory. Not only did I capture the “hunt” of the dandelion I also wanted to capture the details of the moment she blew the dandelion seeds.
Tip #6 Take different perspectives
I wanted to tell a story of this little mini photo shoot so I varied up how I took the photos. Some were close up, some far away, some were taken in the shade, and some taken with backlight. The backlighting in our backyard is sooo nice and I try to take at least a couple of images from this perspective. I love how it highlighted her crazy hair!
And yes she’s still holding the fruit snacks. Had to do a little bribery ha!
Tip #7 Add novelty
Here I added something unpredictable and moved the chair to add some novelty. The chairs are usually closer to our house and are meant for sitting near our table. I wanted to move it and have her use it in a different way. I actually encouraged her to see if she could reach and/or smell the flowers and loved how they turned out!
Tip #8 Give them space
She ended up trying to climb this tree as well so I just backed up and took a few different shots of this. I love the perspective, curiosity, and especially documenting how little she is.
Are there any tips you would add to this list? Let me know by leaving a comment below!