Baby and Toddler photography

A couple of weeks ago (it takes me some time to get around to blogging) I did a photoshoot for my sister’s NCT group in Bradford-on-Avon, and some of there connections. There were a mix of ages there, from 9 weeks up to a couple of years old. There’s not too much to say about the shoot really, other than it was great fun, and a nice opportunity to play with my neice. But here are a few observations about baby and toddler photography, which although not coming directly from this shoot, were evident during it:

Babies who are six to nine months old are generally the easiest to photograph: they can sit up unaided, but hopefully are too young to crawl/run off; and there attention can usually be held by a few simple toys keeping them happy. If they aren’t hungry or tired, they will usually be reasonably happy and smile/giggle a lot. A really wonderful age. If your child is this age, contact me now to book a shoot!

Really tiny babies can be a challenge becuase they are so very dependent, and usually find it hard to connect to anyone else other than their mother, particularly when the stranger has a black box attached to their face. That is why you’ll see a lot of baby photos focused on cute little features such as the hands and feet.

Toddlers become challenging again as they know their own mind, and choose not to co-operate if they don’t want to be photographed. By two most kids have also learnt how to acheive a very fake looking camera smile. But that only makes successful photoshoots with toddlers all the more rewarding. My top tips for toddler photography are:

1. Get them involved. Ask them to press the shutter button a few times. It make it more exciting when they feel they can take turns being the photographer. (Or bring a toy camera for them to use)
2. Allow them just to play in the studio (getting mum & dad involved to0), and just take photos of the kids doing what they do best. Don’t expect them to pose.
3. Have ridiculous hair like me, they’ll assume you are a clown and smile! Well, it gets children looking at me in a slightly puzzled way anyway.

The photos in this post are of my children, as I didn’t ask permission of any of the parents there to post their photos publicly. The gallery of the photoshoot in the client-area is password protected for the same reason.