Getting your Child Ready for a Photo Shoot
Mindy came over on Saturday for Noah’s six month photo shoot and we had tons of fun in coordinating Bears attire at our local park (Click here for the baby shoot, and here for the 3 month shoot if you are just joining us 🙂 . . . 6 month shoot photos are coming soon!). Elijah was beside himself with excitement when he saw Mindy at the front door, was incredible during the shoot, and has talked positively about the experience ever since. Hands down – he loves Mindy and he loves it when she comes to take our pictures.
Todays post was actually Mindy’s idea. Seeing as I only have experience with my own kids, I hadn’t thought about the fact that taking kids pictures is not always an easy feat (although Mindy makes it look effortlessly simple!). So here are some tricks we use to prep the boys for our best family photo ops. Maybe they will help you prep for yours. 🙂
1 – Pick a good photographer.
This one is easy for us because Mindy is so good with our kids. There is something important about the connection your child has with the photographer. If your child is not a fan of the photographer – for whatever reason, good pictures are just not going to happen.
2 – Schedule your photo shoot at a time when your kids are well rested and fed.
Trust me when I say that nothing good will come from hungry, tired kids. If you can’t get the appointment time you need on a given day, reschedule. It’s definitely not worth it. We have found that our best photo shoots happen in the morning (after morning naps and well before lunch) or immediately following afternoon naps. Know what works for your family and stick to it.
3 – Know your own limits.
I know for a fact that I cannot take both boys to a photo studio by myself. It would be equally dumb of me to schedule Mindy to come over to the house when Mike is at work. I also get crabby when I’m hungry. You get the point.
4 – Talk it up and make it exciting.
We tell Elijah in advance when Mindy is coming to take our pictures. For this last photo shoot, I made sure we all had Bears shirts. When I bought Elijah’s at the store, and any time he wore it after, I made a point to tell him that this was a special shirt (that he needed to take care of) for when Mindy came to take pictures. We put the date on our Family Schedule Board and told him multiple times throughout the week that she would be coming on Saturday and that we were going to take pictures at the park. When Mindy showed up at our house Elijah was prepared for it. Our excitement translated into his excitement.
5 – Be prepared and expect the unexpected.
For photo shoots in a studio we have packed the following:
- Diaper bag with normal essentials
- Child’s favorite snacks and full sippys or bottles
- Child’s “lovely” (just in case they need help smiling in pictures or a little comfort after everything is done)
- Tide Pen (this saved us one day when Elijah splashed grape juice all over his white shirt on the way to the studio)
- Stroller to hold all the “stuff” and potentially a rowdy child 🙂
For our photo shoots at home with Mindy, we make sure the items above are easily accessible (minus the stroller of course) but also prepare for the following:
- Access to “special” toys that are normally not available to the child – like our ipod or ipad
- A new video
- Anything out of the ordinary to the child that will keep their attention when they are waiting for their turn in front of the camera.
Shoots outside seem to be pretty exciting all on their own, so we didn’t need to have anything to entertain Elijah with – but I did forget the regular diaper bag and therefore was forced to wipe spit-up off of Noah’s clothes with his jacket. I will know for next time!
Happy picture-taking and memory-making!
– Mindy is available to schedule photo shoots and she comes highly recommended of course! Visit her blog a {day} with lil mama stuart to find out how she can make memories for your family! –
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