I love taking photographs of children. They haven’t yet learned to keep their emotions off of their face or to be shy of the camera. Plus, they ALWAYS want to see EVERY picture you take of them and they cackle gleefully at every picture. It’s very rewarding. Now that I have a ton of friends having children, I’m dying to take pictures of all of them. For those of you who have this same love of photographing children, or for those of you with children who need to be photographed, here are some pointers to keep in mind that will make for much more compelling photos.
First, get down on their level. This may seem obvious, but there are so many pictures of kids out there from up top and I’m certainly guilty of that myself. Although it’s not as simple as just standing around and taking pictures, if you get down on your knees, or stomach as the case my be, I promise your pictures will be much more compelling.
Second, unless the background is extremely important to the composition of your shot, try and fill up the screen with them.
It will make your photos feel more like you are joining their world and their mind rather that just take a shot from an outsiders perspective.
Finally, keep your camera handy when kids are around! They’re always doing hilarious things and you want to be able to capture these memories forever.