Stop telling your kids to say cheese, seriously, STOP!
I know, it sounds crazy. Everyone wants to have a beautiful photo of their kids with a big happy smile on their face, and you have every right and should have one, two, many of them. But what happens when you get to a session, stand 3 feet away from your photographer and start telling your child to say cheese? You get this……
P I NI M A G E
OR this…..
Ok yes, these are funny and adorable, but they are not real, I told him to smile in the first one and the second one…..Yes, I will keep them and we will laugh about them in the future, but you are not paying a professional good money for those type of images. You hired a photographer to capture beautiful images of your children, what would you prefer? A cheesy fake smile or a real, genuine, happy smile? We want to remember our children for who they where growing up, their personalities, their excitement, their love, so how do you do this? Well let me tell you the secret, be yourself! Your children love you, they adore you, they think you are hilarious! When you try and force emotion from a child, you are taking away from who they are and usually it will end in a frustrated child, frustrated parents and a gallery of disappointing images. If you have had a session with me, you have seen the way I work, I play games, act goofy, and HAVE FUN. I want children to leave my sessions happy and excited to do it again.
You know your children better than anyone, you know what makes them laugh and makes them cry. Come prepared for your session, bring things they love, things you know that will get them smiling that beautiful, genuine smile. Some of my favorite images of my children are them just being themselves. When I child looks at me, their big eyes pierce the camera, focused, alert, love and personality ready to explode, that is what I look for, that is what creates feeling and power. This image is a perfect example of that, this was a half a second before he jumped up, laughed and skipped along, all I was doing was telling him a story. I sat him down against that wall, started talking to him, saw that look and took the shot. Is it a perfect smiling shot? No, but it is one of my favorites. His eyes are big and focused on mine, when I look at it I remember the moment I took it, what we where doing, the moments that followed. Most importantly, he is happy, he is himself and we had fun! Then you have the next one, do you see the difference between the fake smile above where he looks like he just ate a sour lemon and this one? That is because this one is real, I was hiding in the garage jumping out and surprising him which he loves to do. You can see the excitement in his face, it makes me happy when I look at it.
So next time you have a photo shoot with your kids, don’t tell them to say cheese, cheese stinks (literally and metaphorically speaking). Have fun with your kids, be yourself, play games. Don’t worry so much about getting them to smile, it will happen on its own as long as they are having fun! These are the memories you all want to grow with. When you get frustrated, they know, they feel it, and it shows. This has been a public service announcement from your local photographer. Cut the cheese!
Emma Stasko Photography specializes in newborn, baby, maternity, birth, child and family photography in Austin, Texas and surrounding areas including but not limited to Cedar Park and Round Rock.