This is probably hard for many people to hear and it can be a sensitive conversation to have so many photographers will avoid it and try to work through these issues during a session, but we believe that it is best addressed up front, before a family or children’s portrait session.
We understand that we all want our little ones to be polite and behave as well as possible, but we also want to get the best possible family or children’s portraits. Contrary to what the majority of people think acting like a parent during the session is not the way to get those treasured portraits you’re after.
Here is the fact…the vast majority of kids under the age of about 6 or 7 will not sit still for long and do not react well to being posed. They get bored quickly and the session stops being fun. To make matters worse, a parent continually telling them “sit still” – “put your hands down” – “look at the camera” – and my all-time favorite “say cheese” – very often makes matters worse. Little ones tend to get sullen and refuse to smile when they think they are in trouble or being repeatedly corrected.
Our advice – let kids be kids and let the photographer (us) direct the session. Just relax and enjoy the time and experience of making and preserving these special memories together.
We do the majority of our sessions on-location, so we like to let the kids run around and play…we let them be kids. That’s why we schedule 90 minutes. We may only need 20 – 30 minutes of actual shooting time, but the rest is allowing the kids to burn off some energy, enjoy themselves and get comfortable with us and our equipment. That is the benefit of experience and why you hire a professional.
The key for Mom & Dad, relax and let them be kids…maybe try being a kid yourself. 10 or 15 years from now when they are teenagers and developing lives of their own wouldn’t you rather look at portraits of your family filled with love, laughter and genuine closeness rather than a static, boring shot of all of you looking at the camera with posed smiles or worse…no smiles at all?
Here is how we make that happen.
First, a pre-session consultation is essential. It allows us to learn as much as possible about your family and what they like and what makes them happy, so we can do our best to bring those elements into your session and get you the best possible portraits. Does your little girl love Dora? Then we will make sure we have the Dora theme song on our iPhone to play during the session to get her reaction. Does your little boy have a favorite toy? Bring it with you even if you don’t want it in the pictures for some reason. We might be able to use it to get his attention or to make him smile. Trust us to find out what we need to know and to use that information to maximum effect.
During this consultation we will also go over studio information, policies and our thoughts on issues such as this one so we are all on the same page and there are no surprises during the session.
Many clients, and sadly some photographers, think that a pre-session consultation is unnecessary and a waste of time, but we believe it to be an invaluable tool in preparing to capture the best possible images for your family…memories that you will treasure for a lifetime, not just snapshots that will end up in a drawer next week. Trust us to make that happen.
Second, scheduling the session is another major piece of the puzzle. Most children under the age of about 8 will do better with an early morning session, before their day gets busy, hectic and before they get tired, hungry for lunch or near time for a nap. They are energetic in the morning, but they are also happy and less likely to get grumpy. Those are all the things we want.
Third, and this one is much harder for some people, relinquish control. Monitor your kids to make sure they are safe and don’t wander off, but please don’t be a parent. Let them enjoy themselves and let us gently direct them where we want them to go. Allow us to pose you and then insert the children; hopefully you are able to sit still just a bit longer than they can.
Allow us to “build” the portrait piece-by-piece through posing you and then inserting the kids quickly so that we can get off a few shots before they get fidgety and want to move again.
Also, and I can’t stress this enough, please do not encourage your children to “say cheese” unless you want that silly smile they get when doing that. We have numerous tricks we can use to get more relaxed, natural smiles on the little ones and also maybe make them laugh to get multiple images of how your kids look when they are really happy and having fun.
It is very hard, virtually impossible really; to get quality portraits for your family if you have your head turned toward your child the majority of the session telling them what to do, which quite often is not what we want them to do, or if you continually look frustrated or angry. If you relax, look at us and smile we can direct the kids and get them to look at us at the same time.
Relinquishing control is also very important even if you are not in the photo. We don’t want your little ones looking at you throughout the session rather than at the camera or where we are trying to direct them. This is the same reason why we have a studio policy against personal cameras or camera phones during a session…the kids, and sometimes the adults don’t know where to look and it gets distracting for everyone.
Why should you do all these things and let us take control? Simple…you are paying us for our expertise, experience and skill; let us use those things.
Story Tellers Photography LLC 
Family Portrait Lessons – Stop Acting Like A Parent for 90 Minutes
This is probably hard for many people to hear and it can be a sensitive conversation to have so many photographers will avoid it and try to work through these issues during a session, but we believe that it is best addressed up front, before a family or children’s portrait session.
We understand that we all want our little ones to be polite and behave as well as possible, but we also want to get the best possible family or children’s portraits. Contrary to what the majority of people think acting like a parent during the session is not the way to get those treasured portraits you’re after.
Here is the fact…the vast majority of kids under the age of about 6 or 7 will not sit still for long and do not react well to being posed. They get bored quickly and the session stops being fun. To make matters worse, a parent continually telling them “sit still” – “put your hands down” – “look at the camera” – and my all-time favorite “say cheese” – very often makes matters worse. Little ones tend to get sullen and refuse to smile when they think they are in trouble or being repeatedly corrected.
Our advice – let kids be kids and let the photographer (us) direct the session. Just relax and enjoy the time and experience of making and preserving these special memories together.
The key for Mom & Dad, relax and let them be kids…maybe try being a kid yourself. 10 or 15 years from now when they are teenagers and developing lives of their own wouldn’t you rather look at portraits of your family filled with love, laughter and genuine closeness rather than a static, boring shot of all of you looking at the camera with posed smiles or worse…no smiles at all?
Here is how we make that happen.
First, a pre-session consultation is essential. It allows us to learn as much as possible about your family and what they like and what makes them happy, so we can do our best to bring those elements into your session and get you the best possible portraits. Does your little girl love Dora? Then we will make sure we have the Dora theme song on our iPhone to play during the session to get her reaction. Does your little boy have a favorite toy? Bring it with you even if you don’t want it in the pictures for some reason. We might be able to use it to get his attention or to make him smile. Trust us to find out what we need to know and to use that information to maximum effect.
During this consultation we will also go over studio information, policies and our thoughts on issues such as this one so we are all on the same page and there are no surprises during the session.
Many clients, and sadly some photographers, think that a pre-session consultation is unnecessary and a waste of time, but we believe it to be an invaluable tool in preparing to capture the best possible images for your family…memories that you will treasure for a lifetime, not just snapshots that will end up in a drawer next week. Trust us to make that happen.
Second, scheduling the session is another major piece of the puzzle. Most children under the age of about 8 will do better with an early morning session, before their day gets busy, hectic and before they get tired, hungry for lunch or near time for a nap. They are energetic in the morning, but they are also happy and less likely to get grumpy. Those are all the things we want.
Third, and this one is much harder for some people, relinquish control. Monitor your kids to make sure they are safe and don’t wander off, but please don’t be a parent. Let them enjoy themselves and let us gently direct them where we want them to go. Allow us to pose you and then insert the children; hopefully you are able to sit still just a bit longer than they can.
Also, and I can’t stress this enough, please do not encourage your children to “say cheese” unless you want that silly smile they get when doing that. We have numerous tricks we can use to get more relaxed, natural smiles on the little ones and also maybe make them laugh to get multiple images of how your kids look when they are really happy and having fun.
It is very hard, virtually impossible really; to get quality portraits for your family if you have your head turned toward your child the majority of the session telling them what to do, which quite often is not what we want them to do, or if you continually look frustrated or angry. If you relax, look at us and smile we can direct the kids and get them to look at us at the same time.
Relinquishing control is also very important even if you are not in the photo. We don’t want your little ones looking at you throughout the session rather than at the camera or where we are trying to direct them. This is the same reason why we have a studio policy against personal cameras or camera phones during a session…the kids, and sometimes the adults don’t know where to look and it gets distracting for everyone.
Why should you do all these things and let us take control? Simple…you are paying us for our expertise, experience and skill; let us use those things.
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