#1

We enrolled Sniggs in Pre-K yesterday!  He will be starting in about 4 weeks, I can’t believe it!

#2

One of my new Simply Us Session photos was chosen for the Friday Inspiration post over on The Maternal Lens!  There are always such great images, I am thrilled to be among them, and even more thrilled that it’s a photo from the new sessions I am offering!  In case you missed the post on my new sessions, check out the slideshow in the blog post below.  And click here to check out all the fabulous photos for inspiration from TML!

#3

I’m working on a new thing, it’s blog themes!  I have teamed up with a fabulous designer that you all know and love, and we are super excited too announce them!  So make sure you stick around :)  I’m sure I’ll be doing a sneak peek at them very soon, because they are awesome!

#4

Every week if the weather is nice we do a family hike, we love them, nothing major, just something fun outdoors, I highly recommend it!

#5

Everyone always thinks Sniggs is really easy to photograph, but he is soooooo not!  I have to work for ALL my shots!!  He’s harder than almost every client I’ve ever had!  But, I’ve developed some  fun easy ways to get the shots I love, so I thought I would share a few!  I hope they can help you out!

How to go from this ……..                                                                                       to this………………

Sniggs just turned 4 – so he loves that he knows his numbers, and can count, so I use that to my advantage!  I will start with one, and say it in a funny voice, then 2 with a loud bing noise, 3 like a monkey, 4 in a deep manly voice, and so on … sometimes I will go out of order, or throw a random number in, and for whatever reason, he thinks that is hilarious!

I also ask him to repeat funny words, like random words that aren’t even really words, “sqeebledope”  Or I’ll tell him a short story and replace words he knows with my random vocabulary, and he always thinks that’s funny too!

I ask him to be mad, then I copy him, in a ridiculously exaggerated way, so he can see how silly he looks, and that works well to get a smile.

These two pics were taken literally like 2 seconds apart, and as soon as I saw that pout/sideways lip thing he’s known for I squeebledoped right into action, and made him forget he wasn’t happy!

Every kid is different, but my big tip is to get to know them, or even if it’s your own child, pick up the camera and click away while you interact with them, so that way when you do start taking real photos it’s not a big change from fun to “camera in my face” then they are comfortable in front of it, start using distractions to get them to do what you want.  I don’t tell Sniggs to put his hands a certain way, if I want them in his lap I ask him to pick at the stripe and get it off his shorts, then I distract him with something else, so his hands are now in his lap!  It’s all about being a real person with kids, not a photographer :)

Have fun!

HAPPY FRIDAY