Got kids? Always pointing a camera at them? Disappointed with the results?

We have two children and my wife probably takes more photos of them in a year than I take in my job as a professional photographer! We can´t go anywhere without my wife stopping every five minutes and bribing the children to smile for the camera! Sound familiar? Most parents love to take photos of their kids but, even in the digital age, the results can be disappointing! So what can be done to improve the results?

Firstly, don´t always ask your children to stop and smile for the camera! Natural shots of them playing can be far more enjoyable to look back on than shot after shot of them stock still looking straight at the camera (or not!). Shots of them running or playing or concentrating can bring out more of their character than a posed shot.

Get closer but not too close! Many shots I see are taken too far away so the child is too small in the frame. Get closer so that your child fills the frame. But don´t get too near, as most automatic cameras can´t focus much closer than 4-6 feet. So any nearer than that and it could be out of focus and blurry.

Kneel down! If you are towering above your little one pointing a camera at the top of their head whilst they are straining their neck to look up to you, it tends not to make a very flattering picture! If you kneel or bend down so that the camera is at their eye level, then the photos will look much more relaxed and natural.

Finally, try to avoid taking pictures in direct sunlight as it causes horrible shadows, plays havoc with the automatic exposure in your camera and makes your children tend to squint! If there is a shady area nearby, drag them into there and shoot away, the light will be much softer and you will be surprised at just how much it will improve your shots!