Take Pictures that Really Capture Your Kids
Do you remember having your photo taken for school picture day? It was always a big deal at my school. We would stand in a line to wait our turn, and we were each given a blue plastic comb to smooth our hair.
Perching us up on the stool, the photographer would call out, “You look like Miss America!” to get some of us to crack a smile. Flash! Click.
I never liked my school pictures when we received that large white folder, but what else could I do? That was the photo that would be framed and hung on the walls at my parents’ and grandparents’ house until next year.
When my child had her first school picture day, I knew I wasn’t really interested in the photos. Her life is well documented already from all the photos I take. I bought the smallest package of prints anyway for tradition’s sake. I don’t know why, I guess it seemed like I was supposed to, and you only get one first school picture day.
The school photos my child brought home a few weeks later were not nearly as good as the ones I take at home. Not because I’m a good photographer, but because the posed school photo did not look like her at all. Her wild-and-free hair was smoothed down with a blue plastic comb, and her face was looking at the camera with a half smile, not the big joyous grin that bursts out with a fit of giggles.
I decided I probably won’t buy the school photos anymore. Thank goodness digital photography has come such a long way that I don’t have to subject my child to the posed school photos with a nature-print background!
I would much rather have candid shots that capture my children’s personalities, antics, and memories. Those are much more real.
You can do a better job of capturing your child in a photo than the school photographer, I promise, even if you don’t have training or a fancy camera.
Need some help? Try these helpful posts for photographing children. (Be sure to print some of your photos to hang on your wall, and make sure you’re in some of the photos too!)
