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• Tip 1 – Probably the single most important tip to remember when taking photos of children. Get down!!! Make sure you get down to their level when taking pictures. Pictures shot from higher angles tend to give children an almost cartoonish look, with giant heads and tiny bodies. Getting down to their level will not only give you the proper scale, but will allow you to see their world from THEIR eyes. (This tip applies to all times when photographing your children. I cannot stress this tip enough.)
• Tip 2 – Lead the shot… from the moment children wake up, until the moment they fall asleep, they are constantly in motion. Which makes snapping a few photos of them all that much more difficult. For the longest time, I used a simple point and shoot camera to get shots of my kids. But the slow shutter reaction combined with slow data processing of low end digital cameras led to poor shots where the kid was no longer in the shot, or where the instance I wished to capture was forever gone. All because those cameras take sooo long to process and shoot. But, if you are like the majority of people out there, you didn’t go out and buy a 600 dollar camera just to take shots of your kids. So, to compensate for the slow cameras and data processing, make sure to lead your kids movements. If they are haulin’ across the lawn on their Big Wheel (you remember those… right?) make sure to take your shot a few feet ahead of them, so by the time the camera actually takes the shot, they have entered the frame. Though sometimes the shot is just impossible to get in time; and one of the things to avoid is trying to recreate the situation. Natural shots are always so much better.
• Tip 3 – Let them be kids… Too often, parents are trying to get good pictures of their kids to add to their Christmas Card or Photo Album. And all too often, this causes disruption in the enjoyment of the day. Parents constantly ordering their kids to stand still, come stand over next to your brother, smile, say cheese. Eventually, the kids will grow to hate that camera. Try taking pictures as things happen. Remember to leave the posed pictures for another time and place. Get pictures of things as they happen. As stated above, Natural shots are always so much better.

That about sums up my three tips for Photographing your Kids at play. Just follow these tips and always… ALWAYS… remember to have fun with it.

Jake