Are you getting pressure from your mom or mother in law to cough up new photos of their grandkids? After all, it’s time for them to update their family photo wall! The idea of getting your little ones to sit and smile nicely for the camera probably seems impossible because they spend most of the day calling each other “doody head.” Here’s 3 tips on how to get those loving shots of your kiddos!

Tip 1: Natural Interactions

The go-to for most portrait sessions is to have a smiley posed image but we all know that can be covering up everyones true colors! Let your kids interact with each other as they normally would if you weren’t looking. It’s a journalistic approach but it will allow you to remember exactly how they were as little tykes. They don’t stay this age forever!

Tip 2: Teaching

Ask the oldest to teach the younger kid(s) to do something; how to do a cartwheel or even how they would sneek attack dad when he’s fallen asleep watching football on the couch. This will get the kids interacting with each other!

Tip 3: Grounding Them

I don’t mean ‘grounding them’ in the sense they can’t play with their friends for a week because the oldest taught your 5 year old to draw on the wall.. Kids will get distracted easily so shoot them on a bench, on a set of stairs, or even on a swing set. This will ground them and let them focus on one area rather than running in circles.

This is a precious time so make sure to capture every in between moment. Don’t forget to do a couple posed and smiley photos for grandma, but catch those moments of natural interaction!

Stay Inspired,

Jana