I take a lot of pictures of my son – a lot.  In most cases they get filtered down to 10% of what I took worth keeping. But those 10% are not only worth keeping, worth framing and up-sizing (obviously I don’t do that for all) – point is taking good pictures of your little one is not only important to document their life journey but it’s also important that they capture a moment, a feeling, a sense of what they were thinking in that point in time.  Hopefully that invokes back some important memories when they look back on those photos.  Of the 7 years I’ve been taking pictures of my little buddy, I’ve notices a few things worth sharing:

1. Never go for the poses, in fact when he does pose, I ask him not to, and I never did what the photo studios do of distracting him with an object to get that face on view with the fake smile. Keep it real, take angles, maybe showing half their face and focusing on different features.  Fake poses are great for year book pictures, and the occasional group photo, or studio photo-shoot.  But day to day it needs to be more casual and expressive.
2. Play with lighting (applies to all photos) but kids react differently to water reflections, light and colour, curtains, etc. Have them fool around in a light/shade area and see the amazing moments you capture.  You don’t have to have a lot of colour, sometimes monotone is great without a filter.  Flashes of colour in a monotone area is even better, preferably in their clothes.
3. Have them take pictures at an early age, even if they click a hundred times – thankfully we live in the digital photo age where that is not considered a waste. Just make sure you delete all of them right after before you forget and run out of space.  Keep the odd one to remind you of their first time with the camera or to see how they improved.  This makes photography enjoyable for them and gives them an early different perspective on life and how to see things.  Kids – and rightly so – are getting frustrated with parents holding their cell phones picture documenting everything in their lives just to post it on Instagram.  Having them involved lessens that frustration.
4. Following the above point, give them a break! Stop taking pictures of everything in their life.  There is a nice feeling with not photographing every single event and leaving some for memory.  Kids get tires, and more so when their parents photograph every single thing.  Worst yet telling them where to stand every few minutes to get that “great insta photo” to share for their own sake.  Let kids have fun and savour the moment naturally.