No, they aren’t.  Your rambunctious toddler may be too young to stand on the little x on the floor at the JC Penny Portrait Studio.  They are not, however, too young for an outdoor lifestyle photo session.  This issue is all about managing expectations and understanding that you may not (especially if you have several young children) get a super posed shot of your entire family smiling beautifully and looking at the camera.  You will, however, be able to get beautiful photographs of your family loving each other, and of your adorable toddler exploring her surroundings. The idea with young kids is to schedule a photographer who will allow them to be themselves, and to capture those moments as they occur.  If she wants to be held by mommy….fine.  Photos of mothers holding their babies are gorgeous.  Does he want to run around waving a stick in the air for the entire shoot?  That’s fine too…action shots are fun.

 

Manage expectations at Portrait Session with young children

 

So? I’m a parent. I’ve been there.  I get it. Please don’t be worried about what I think of your kids behavior.  The biggest thing here is just to relax and not make a big deal of it.  Let the photographer deal with the kids and don’t push too hard.  Compromise.  Let them pick their outfit.  Embrace the madness.  Be a beautiful mess.  Don’t sweat the small stuff and all that other Zen business.  The most important thing is to capture your family as they are at this moment in time.  And if I happen to get a photo of little Johnny biting his big sister, then I’m sure you’ll all laugh about it when they are adults. 

 

Well, then you are doing it wrong.  Photo session should be a fun time for families to capture memories together.  When scheduling sessions, I strive to help my clients through out the process of scheduling, picking a location and choosing their wardrobe.  I prefer children (and parents) to have fun and be carefree at our photo shoots....often thinking of them more like playdates than photo sessions.   I encourage parents not to stress out or get frustrated with what seems like uncooperative little ones.  Relax and leave the children to me and often the "uncooperative" / carefree toddler evokes the most emotional, real and joyful photographs.

 

This is the worst reason to put off scheduling a photo shoot for two reasons (other than the fact that you can not actually turn back time).

 

First, it’s a professional photographers job to make you look like your best self.  No, this does not mean that I will photoshop you to look like a supermodel...I want you to look like YOU.  It does mean that a professional photographer puts lots of thought into posing, editing, cropping, etc in order to make you feel comfortable with your photos.  And if you have a particular area that you are concerned about, be sure to let the photographer know.  The bottom line is that these photos will not be those awful snapshots your uncle Bob put on Facebook that made you cringe every time you looked at them. 

 

Second, and most importantly, your children love you exactly how you are right now.  In 20 years, they will not look at these photos and notice if you carried a little extra weight, or had crows feet around your eyes.  But they will see the love and joy that was captured at these photo sessions.  Give them the gift of memories and stop putting it off “until.”  Today is what matters.

 

Your kids are not too young for a portrait session.

 

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Did I miss any excuses?  What excuses have you given or heard about putting off scheduling a photo session?  Next week, I will be writing part 2 of this series about how to choose a photographer.