I know how hard it can be to document your kids! Some days (weeks) go by and I forget to take a single photo…even on my phone, let alone my nice camera! Sometimes life is that crazy! Other times I focus in too much on how to photograph her + she just gets mad and goes all “photographer child” on me and won’t smile. SO with both of those on the table, let’s chat about photographing your every day life.

Keep a camera near the play area 

This tip is important if you are wanting to capture more than just iPhone photographs of your kids. I keep one of my DSLR bodies in our living room with my 50mm lens on it. I have our designated OHM FAMILY SD card in it and it sits on our TV stand. This helps reminds me to take photos of Isla just playing + it is really accessible if she starts doing something cute or hitting a milestone I want to capture!

An Open Window

Making sure your kids play in a room in your house with a big open light source helps create pretty, well-lit images. That is true on an iPhone too. If there is a large light source in the room, it will help create pretty pictures!

Noises always work!

If you are trying to capture your baby or small toddler smiling and they won’t look at you, try shouting and holding a higher pitched note and descending in pitch quickly. Let me tell you, doing this a few times will definitely catch their attention and 9 times out of 10 they will also smile at your silliness!

Remember the reason you are photographing

This is especially important if you are a photographer, because we tend to focus on getting the perfect photograph but the goal here isn’t perfection it is just to capture the moments as they happen. So just photograph the messy and un-curated moments – those are what will be most special to you.

I hope these help you and inspire you to photograph your sweet kiddos as they play, make messes, and be kids. These are the moments you want to remember and the ones they will have a hard time remembering!

XXO,

Mary

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