Getting pictures of your young kids will inevitably be a struggle. They love to frown, fuss, look the other direction, put their hands in front of their face, or insist on holding something you may not want in the picture. It can be exhausting. I try to alleviate some of that stress when we do our sessions. 

Let me tell you about this adorable family and their session last Sunday. It was a gorgeous day, perfect weather, great location, flowers in bloom, everything you could want for your portrait session. Except little Miss Two Year old was not having it. She didn’t want to see me, look at me, have me point the camera near her, or breathe around her. She cried for a good portion of the time.

No worries! She’s not the first two year old to hate getting her picture taken and she won’t be the last. We took some pictures of her older sister while she snuggled with her dad and ignored me. We got pictures of mom and older sister and then played in the hedges for a little bit.

About 15 minutes into the session, I suggested we go for a short walk to another location. We took a few pictures there and she had stopped crying. She walked for a little bit  and looked back over her shoulder long enough to give me a death glare. (that made me giggle)

So we moved on to another location where her older sister did some balance beam walking on a big log. That finally seemed to interest her and she got down and walked with her parents and let me take some pictures. 

We moved on and walked some more down by the lake and heard some frogs. We all made animal noises, which seemed to really interest her. She happily barked like a dog, meowed like a cat and smiled for a few photos. She was finally warming up. We got a few family pictures while we all ribbitted and moo-ed. 

By the time we walked further down the path to a really cool floating bridge, she was all warmed up, with no pacifier and all smiles. She played with her sister, did some jumping up and down and we got some great shots. 
Finally, we walked back up to our starting location and snagged a few more family portraits and she was in a much better mood. We ended up with a good selection of pictures to choose from of both family, sibling and individual portraits. 

My favorite part of the photo reveal is when the parents go- “Oh wow! You did get some good ones.” So don’t stress! Let’s go out and have some fun in a park and capture your family’s personalities, even if they are a bit cranky.