Elmira Children's Photographer. mom+camera

Welcome to my newest blog series called mom+camera.  This is for all the moms out there who love taking photographs of their children, but want to learn more.  If you want to understand your camera more, are looking for a few "posing" tips or want to learn a little about getting the final image to look how you want it to.  Check here for a new post every couple of weeks.  All the images I show in this series will be images of my own children - so you can see that it can be done!

This week, I want to talk about where to begin.  If you children are much like mine, when you mention the idea of taking photos, they groan, or whine, or run the other way. So what should you do?  Every child is different, but what I've found is that making a game out of it is fun for everyone.  Let them be kids, let them play, run, stick their tongue out.  The reason we photograph them is because we want to stop time.  We want to remember them the way they are right now.  Also, don't expect much.  I usually get less than 10 images if I'm doing individual portraits.  But if I'm attempting a shot of all 3, I'm lucky to get 1 that I love.

If you have older children, the attention span will be better, but the attitude might be different.  It might be easier for them to pretend you are someone else.  But then don't act like mom - act like somebody else and you might have more success.  That's why your children will behave entirely differently if you hire a pro for portraits.

This image was purely an accident - in fact, I didn't even know I had gotten it until I was reviewing them on my computer.

Check back in a couple weeks for another mom+camera post.  Next installment: focusing tips and tricks.