As parents we take pictures of our kids, we take our kids to get their portraits taken and we get school pictures of our kids. We end up with quite a bit of pictures of our kids. However, if your kids are anything like mine, they hate getting their picture taken and end up with this fake smile plastered on their face. School pictures are usually the worst because they have to wait in line and then they get 5 seconds with the photographer and they usually ask them to hold themselves in some uncomfortable, unnatural way, which results in a picture where they look utterly unamused. We don’t often have professional pictures of our kids when they are doing what they want to do- play and have fun. At my family sessions, I try to make it fun and let the kids run around and climb on things so I can capture their cute personalities. While I was babysitting my nephews recently, I thought it’d be a cool idea to just take pictures of them while they played in their house, with their toys in an environment in which they were comfortable. The end result blew me away! Since they were still in their PJs when I arrived, we started with pictures of them in bed reading a book together. By now, my nephews have grown up with my camera in their face, so they don’t even question me when I set up a light stand in their room and start snapping away while they are reading Go Dog Go. I did get a few giggles though when I asked them to pretend they were asleep. That didn’t work out so well, but the pictures of them pretending and giggling were adorable. After our little “shoot” I let them go downstairs and play some video games and grabbed some shots of them interacting with each other and with the family dog. We then had a dance party, where I got serenaded by my youngest nephew as he sung, Thunder, by Imagine Dragons. I let them jump on the bed, gasp! Then I let them make chocolate milk before we got dressed and went outside to play hide and seek. It was quite a full afternoon of fun! To see the results, click on the picture below and scroll through the gallery. To book your own in home portraits of your kids being themselves and having fun, contact me. This is the ultimate in no stress photography, especially if you have active little ones or kids that don’t like to sit and pose.
