I have got the best killer tip for photographing your kids! And it’s actually very, very easy.
GET DOWN TO THEIR LEVEL.
Or, even better, get below it.
Excuse the phone photos I’m posting here, but look, I’m assuming you also use your phone a lot to photographs your children, right? Not just me? They do say, after all, that the best camera is the one you have with you!
Now. Look at these two images of my girl. I took them from two very different vantage points. Which do you prefer? Which looks more interesting and less run of the mill? And do you know why?
Look, don’t just see
As you go about your daily life, how do you normally see your children? No, I’m not talking about whether you think they’re little angels who can do no wrong or little hellions who have aged you two decades in twelve months.
Or whether you see the wee guy as the next Elon Musk or your girl as Scotland’s next answer to Angela Merkel. How do they LOOK to you?
In the normal way of things, as you’re way taller than they are, you look down on them. The tops of their heads are very familiar. The angles of their faces as they look up at you are an every day sight, nothing new there.
Go for something different
Look through the camera roll of your phone and I can guarantee the majority of the photographs you’ve taken of your kids were taken with you standing the way you normally stand, and them doing the thing they normally do.
Yes, these shots from your normal standing position may elicit a smiling “awwww” from Granny, but really, is there anything different about them? Anything that will make Granny stop in her tracks and say “oh!”? Anything that you can post on Instagram which will get more little red hearts than normal?
We all love the grainy, blurry shots of our kids anyway, no matter what, but lets face it, probably nobody else does. Apart from Granny. And Dad.
Change your vantage point
If you want something a little different, a little more eye-catching, change your vantage point.
Instantly you’ve got something looking a lot more interesting. Something that stands out. Often with the added bonus of a “what the hell?!” look on your child’s face as he suddenly realises what the top of YOUR head looks like.
Just don’t expect him to feel guilty about the number of grey hairs he sees there, is all.
Altered environment
Getting down really low gives you shots which look so much less run of the mill and you don’t even have to worry about double chins – they’re kids! Double chins look cute! (Try this trick on an adult and … Well, just don’t.)
As well as your child looking different from the way adults normally see him, his environment looks different too – it looks more like it would look to the child rather than to us. He becomes instantly more connected with it because of this.
Tell a more interesting story
Another great thing about varying your vantage point is that when you put your images together and look at, say, a collection of a family day out, when you have photographs of similar things taken from a variety of angles, it just tells a much better story.
I mean, how dull is it looking back through pictures of an event all taken from the same position? Far too many of them look exactly the same except for – possibly, if you’re lucky – different facial expressions.
So lie on the grass (watching out for, well, you know!), crouch down on the floor, or stand on a chair.
Interested in more tips like this on how to photograph your own children?
Banish the Silly Simper and Death Stare of Doom forever! Anyone who’s tried to photograph their kids will know how maddening it can be.
Here’s how to stop the crazy faces. Find out my secret weapon in taking your phone photos to a whole new level – and once you’ve tried it, you’ll wonder how you ever did without it!
Let me see how this works for you!
Try it! Then post a picture of your results to my Facebook page – I’d love to see what you come up with. Does it help? Let me know!
