How I Got these Images in 20 minutes!
Meet Sadet. Isn’t she gorgeous! This shoot was completely last minute and taken during a family 4th of July cook out. She definitely wasn’t interested in my proposition, at least at first lol. So, here is how to photograph a toddler in 20 minutes!
These represent how she felt the first 5 minutes of the shoot. “Um ByE. PeAcE OuT.” “ArE yOu sErioUs rIGhT nOw.” “iM NoT TrYnA HeaR WHat YeW hAvta SaY tO ME” “I sAiD GiRL ByE”
See. Here it looks like she’s trying to serve me a treat.
And the outfit change? Oh, I had to move quickly, or she probably would’ve stared me down and made me rethink my life decisions!
The attention span of a toddler is so short I am sure it makes you also want to cry sometimes! In my experience, as soon as I lift my finger off the shutter and look away for .2 milliseconds, I miss a great shot. They serve me looks for LITERALLY a few milliseconds. Unless I’m acting like a nutcase. So, if you’re a photographer, I want to say, act like that nutcase and get those photos! Bark like a dog and lick those paws. Because being sweet and approachable isn’t enough anymore lol. BUT make sure to start off as sweet and approachable because if you choose to start off by acting like a confused squirrel, you risk scaring them to tears. SOOO we start slow and test the waters and see what they like Haha!
And if you’re my future client with little babies, I will embarrass myself, and you will probably feel the secondhand embarrassment. But that only makes the session so much more fun and exciting right! However, I am going to go home and think about the embarrassment I felt from the bystanders. I will think about it for the next 10 years or so.
One of my favorite prompts to give toddler is telling them to look into the circle (the camera lens) and find their face in the reflection. I’ll say “Do you see yourself in the circle!?” and usually that give me 3 seconds to snap the photo. But What did I REALLY do? She loves my dogs. So, instead of bringing the dogs outside for her to light up around them, something most people would do if that option was at their disposal, I opted to act like a dog. UhM. We do whatever comes to mind when we work with babies. Unfortunately, my acting skills are likely offensive to dogs. And THATS what made her laugh and serve me looks of “ArE YeW OkAy..?”. Not because I was funny but because I was funny-looking and was embarrassing myself.
To be honest, the most effect way I’ve gotten great photos of little children is by acting a complete fool in front of them. I mean acting like their favorite friends on TV or animals.
The best way to photograph a toddler
I think the most important thing I can do to get photos of toddlers is ensure that my camera settings are as perfect as they can be before I start the session. But sometimes the camera has a mind of it’s own and settings shift. With certain sessions, I usually have the wiggle room to make adjustments and get everything just right. But when its toddlers, we have 3 seconds. So, I quite literally do what I can do with the settings and hope for the best. Sometimes they end up all switched around because the camera hates me on certain days.
In all seriousness, I just like to have fun with them! I do what they like to do. They like to pretend, run, play games, etc. I do it all with them! (Well Idk about running, cause this photographer is especially out shape. Running is definitely not a morning task unless you want to hear me wheezing throughout.) But all those other things, I’m the one!
So, if you find it hard to photograph a toddler in a short amount of time, I hope you will give these things try!