Don’t get me wrong; I love taking photos of my three daughters. I am all for telling them to look at mom, “smile, say cheese, say jellybeans…” Anything to get their attention, but I love capturing those little moments that tell a story organically. Even though regular photos look beautiful, I feel like there’s just something different about photos of your children that are not “staged”. When you take a photo of your child organically, a lot of the times you can see their personality or mannerisms that you may miss in a cheesy smile.
Here are some of the photos that I captured organically. My daughter loves watermelon, you can tell this by the photo (I love this photo!) One night out on a walk, my daughter needed to tie her shoes. This photo is special because these shoes take forever to tie. I remember her being so proud of herself when she learned how to tie them and how these are her favorite pair of shoes. Photos that convey emotion tell a story. Does anyone out there have a child that bites their lip when they’re thinking? Or twirls their hair when they are reading? Daydreamers with tiny smiles? These photos will be cherished. I feel like they have a more editorial unposed look to them.
Here are some tips to take better organic photos of your children.
Get those organic moments. Try and refrain from; “Look at Mom... smile for dad.... Hold still, just one more!” Try to document the normal day to day stuff; sister being a big helper and feeding her brother, your preschooler pouring their own drink, brushing our teeth, reading a book, playing the piano, building Legos, coloring, etc. And it really helps to get down to their level: If they are a crawling, get down on the floor and take the photo from their point of view. The world looks different down there. Try and capture the surrounding area and take in everything from their unique perspective.
Take photos of them doing things they love! If they love to draw, take your phone down to the level of the table and snap their photo there while they are in the middle of drawing. If they love helping in the kitchen; get down to their level and snap them cracking the eggs, licking their fingers, or using the rolling pin.
Reflectors can be your best friend! This one is a little more advanced, but also inexpensive. If you’re looking for clean and crisp photos, try bouncing the light. You would be surprised at how easy this is. If you don’t have a reflector a white poly board or even a sheet works.
Once you’ve selected your photos that you want to keep, try using some editing software apps. A couple of my favorites are Filmborn and Lightroom.
I’m also a huge fan of layout apps. Here are a few of the ones that I love to use: Canva, PhotoGrid, and Layout. They are a great way to make a storyboard. I like to take photos of all the details; like in the photo pictured below with the watercolors. This was an afternoon when my daughter decided she wanted to paint some flowers. There’s also one of those “cheese” faces in there, however she was beaming already from pride for the things she created.
You can do this right on your smart phone as well as a DSLR. All of these examples were organically snapped and taken on various iPhones.
Article by Jenny Elaine Photography from Janesville, Wisconsin.
