I work with kids a lot. I volunteer at my kids’ schools; I am a Boy Scout leader and I help with my older son’s Venturing Crew. I also have two little, very well photographed, nephews. So taking pictures of kids is usually not a problem. I’ve been told that I must have endless patience. Truth it- I’m a kid at heart myself, so I get them. They want to have fun and I’m totally on board with that idea.

Well, one day I thought I might have met my match. This adorable little boy loves his parents and trucks, and long walks in the park but DOES NOT like cameras, or smiling in the vicinity of one. None of my usual tricks worked.

We started off the session with him hugging his mom and putting his head on the opposite side of hers so I couldn’t see him. Still a cute picture, but you can’t really see him.

Then we moved on to the “throw him up in the air” move. Usually, after you do this a few times, they are laughing and smiling and I can snag a few of him in his mother’s arms smiling. Well he loved being thrown up in the air, but the minute he was back in his mother’s arms, he knew I was there and went back to hiding his face. This is a cute moment between them though.
I figured out that he loves kissing his mom. That makes for a cute picture too, so I asked her to get him to kiss her. He did. He loved it. but he knows I’m there…
I needed to get at least a few pictures of this kid looking at me and smiling! I knew it was time to pull out the big guns. So we packed it all up, got in the car and drove to the playground. I asked him if he wanted to play and of course he said yes! So off he went to play on the jungle gym. I left him alone for few minutes and he got comfortable playing. He loved the slide in particular and I noticed that he would come down the slide and stop and smile at the end. So the next time he went up the slide, I set my camera and myself at the bottom and waited for him to arrive. Lo and behold, he got to the bottom of the slide and SMILED and looked right at me!! Turns out, all he needed was some sliding and some playing and he was much more willing to pose for me after that. I guess sometimes you just need to slide.