With the long summer days approaching I thought it would be good to give some helpful hints to all of you moms and dads out there who want to capture a great photograph of your children.

I find myself photographing my children on a daily basis and know that as other moms and even dads consider photographing their children, these basic tips may come in handy.

When you find yourself out on a sunny day, make it a point to photograph your children in a shady area. This will give you a nice quality of light as well as eliminate harsh shadows that cause anyone to squint.

Try not to place the sun directly behind or in front of your subject for a couple of reasons:

1. when the sun is behind your subject you often will get sun flare (when the sun shines into your lens) this is distracting to any photograph and hard if not impossible to eliminate post snap-shot.

2. When the sun is placed behind the photographer (you) it will cause those harsh shadows and squinting we discussed above.

Below is some information from a previous post I thought would be helpful.

Keep it fun.  Humor is a great icebreaker with children and most everyone else.

Nothing turns a child away faster than a persistent parent 🙂 and yet to get good photographs isn’t that what we must be?

When photographing your child make it fun. Give the children an opportunity to be the photographer, They love feeling important.

Try to pick a time of day when the children are well rested and have full tummies.

Every child loves a bit of encouragement.  In our house we use candy 🙂

Always have your camera handy.  I keep mine in my purse so it is always available.

Most of all keep it fun, fun, and more fun.  It is so easy to find ourselves frustrated to find that perfect picture opportunity slipping away.  Don’t push it, in 10 minutes another “perfect”  opportunity will arise.

Have fun and remember to get in on the fun. Being in our own photographs is something us parents often overlook. Remember 20 years from now our children will want to see what we looked like and we will finally appreciate how good we look now.