What Your Kids Shouldn’t Do On Family Photo Shoots

If you thought this was going to be a blog post about restricting your kids during family photos, especially for your Christmas family photos, you thought wrong!

In fact, this is a blog post all about letting your kids be wild, free and fun!

What Your Kids Shouldn’t Do On Your Family Photo Shoot

 

Your kids shouldn’t stand still

If you’re a parent, I probably don’t need to tell you how difficult this is on a normal day let alone outdoors with your whole family in all the excitement of having your photos taken! How often do kids sit still? Or stand straight, grinning and bearing it? Kids run around and when they do this they laugh and smile and have tons of fun. Yes, you should have some boundaries and keep your children close by, but I encourage parents to engage with the energy of their children. Run around with them, pick them up, throw them in the air, play games or do an activity. These are what create natural photos that capture the individual personalities of your children!

Your kids shouldn’t be forced/ encouraged into stiff poses

I hereby promise to never force you or your children into awkward poses. And I encourage parents not to either! The traditional studio photos you get done at the mall are far from what to expect when booking a lifestyle photographer like myself. There is time to have a group photo of everyone together looking at the camera, but I don’t ever try to force this and especially not straight away when some children might be shy and need some time to warm to me and my camera. When everyone’s happy and relaxed, then I can say “Quick! Everyone huddle together and look here!” This is much more natural than standing and staring at the camera for long periods of time. Anyone would feel fidgety and awkward doing that!

Your kids shouldn’t force a smile

This goes hand in hand with all the above. If you get the first two things down, the smiles will come naturally. I always encourage parents to bring something fun to the shoot if they want to. Some families bring bubbles or, for toddlers, it’s helpful to bring a favorite toy (this might even be sweet to remember years down the line!). For babies and infants, it’s helpful to bring something that makes noise or lights up to get their attention and make them smile.

Kids are kids. They’re wild and silly and they run everywhere and are pretty hard to control in the excitement of it all. It is 100x better to embrace this than to try and restrict it. Your family photo shoot will be outdoors and in a location where there aren’t a lot of people. This is the perfect opportunity for “outdoor voices” and for bringing out all that silliness and fun.

Letting your kids be themselves and joining in on the fun as parents allows your photographer to really capture who you are as a family and document the precious moments you have together!