Distract Your Kids

Last week I realized something that's probably painfully obvious to most photographers. There's a big difference between taking pictures of your kids and someone else's kids. Whenever I've taken pictures of a client's children, most of the time they're cooperative and willing to do what I ask them to do. When it comes to my own kids, forget about it.  

My daughter used to LOVE to get her picture taken and would pose away whenever I asked her to. Now, at age 11, she doesn't really cooperate. She insists she's trying, but no matter what, she closes her eyes, something itches, the flash is bothering her...it goes on and on. My son is the same way, but he never liked getting his picture taken.

Then I came across the picture above I took in 2008. I realized this is really the best way to take pics of your own kids: Have someone else distracting them while you take as many pictures as you can. One of them is bound to be a keeper AND you're getting a very candid portrait, which is what I'm usually after anyway. It's a tactic you'd expect to use with only babies and toddlers, but it works with pre-teens too.

For the picture above, I found a grassy area while visiting the Polynesian Village at Disney World. My wife distracted them while I snapped away. You can see my son is in mid-sentence while my daughter is half laughing...great capture.

The problem I had last week was when it was just me trying to take their picture (for this years Christmas card). I had to try on two different days because my daughter couldn't stop fidgeting and absolutely refused to keep her eyes open. I never did get the picture I really wanted, but eventually got something I could work with. I'm saving the whole story for a later blog.