How to prepare young children for indoor family photos
Winter in New England can be rough. It’s cold, wet, and crawling with coughs and colds. Throw in one or more children under the age of five and you have the recipe for full blown tantrums and meltdowns.
Doesn’t exactly sound like the setting for beautiful family photos, does it? I’m here to tell you that it absolutely can be! From the warmth and comfort of your home you can have beautiful pictures taken even if the weather outside is leaning more towards frightful. This post features photos from an indoor family photoshoot in Windham, New Hampshire featuring a couple and their four children all under the age of ten! Here are 4 tips for how to prepare your young children for indoor family photos so all the tears can be avoided (both theirs and yours.)
Bring snacks
I don’t know about you but I love snacks. Most children would agree with me- snacks are the best. I’m not saying to hand your kiddo a melting ice cream cone mid-photoshoot (unless that’s the look you’re going for) but having a little something on hand as a motivator can work wonders. The snacks you offer should be small and relatively mess free. Some that I suggest are: fruit snacks, mini marshmallows, cereal, and those little baby puff things.
What have I seen not work so well? Anything in a container that your child is going to want to hold. Unless you want to have a tube of mini M&Ms or a lollipop stick in all of your pictures opt for something your kiddo can pop in their mouth quickly without offering up the package it comes in. Speaking of M&Ms anything melty should be avoided. If the treat doesn’t make it right into their mouth you may end up with little hands, clothes, and cheeks smeared with chocolate.
2. Have distractions ready to go
Young children have very short attention spans. The silly noises and games that I try to use to keep their attention are not going to last for very long no matter how hard I try. So I suggest keeping some distractions in your back pocket (not literally- please empty your pockets I can’t tell you how many back pocket phone silhouettes I’ve seen…. anywayyy).
My favorite distraction is singing or playing music. For toddlers hearing a favorite song can lead to adorable hand clapping, laughing, or booty shaking. For older kiddos a dance party is a great way to work out some of those “I’m sick of taking pictures” wiggles and can lead to some super cute and natural connection photos.
Distractions that don’t work as well are those that involve a physical object. Just remember that while clever angles and photoshop will help- any object you give to your little one has a chance of making an appearance in your photos. This may not be a big deal if it’s their beloved teddy bear, but might not be as appreciated if it’s a monster truck or doll house.
3. Be patient
Taking family photos with young children can be frustrating in any environment- especially so when there’s some strange lady coming into their home and asking them to snuggle up with their siblings. Try to see things from their point of view and have patience. I know that it would be amazing if I could be in and out in half an hour with a memory card full of beautiful, authentic images… but that isn’t always going to be the reality. Kids get stranger danger, they get shy, or jealous, or hungry, tired, cranky- any number of emotions. The wonderful thing about kids is that they can feel one emotion and ten seconds later feel the exact opposite.
So just be patient. If your kiddo needs a break to reset themselves that’s totally fine. I am never in a rush to get through your session and you shouldn’t be either. Take the time to let your littles warm up to the situation and be prepared to change course as needed.
4. Ignore the bad behavior and gush over the good behavior
On a similar note- you can also influence your child’s behavior by controlling your own. If you want your child to do something try doing it yourself first and then encourage your child to “help” you or show you how they would do it. Then, when they do that thing, gush on and on about what a great job they did. For example, if you want your kiddo to sit on the stairs with their big brother it might go something like this:
“Oh boy, George looks so lonely on the stairs all alone! I would sit with him but I don’t know where to sit! Nick could you sit on the stairs with George to show me how to do it?”
*Nick sits on the stairs*
“Oh my gosh that’s perfect! Nick you are the best little brother ever! Wow! What if you put your arm around George? Oh my goodness! That’s AMAZING!”
You get the idea. Children want to impress adults and they crave that positive attention. Feeding into it is a great way to get them to cooperate for your photos.
On the opposite side of things is how we react to bad behavior. Punishing, yelling, and scolding might be the knee jerk reactions that you have when your kids are misbehaving in front of a stranger (hi, it’s me.) but I’m going to encourage you not to do those things. What do I want you to do about your child’s bad behavior? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Ignore them. If you don’t react to the loud sound they are making or the slightly inappropriate pose they are striking- they are going to stop doing it. If they see you showering praise and attention on the child who is snuggling in for hugs and kisses they will (eventually) want that praise too and do the same thing.
Now I obviously want your children to be safe so if they are doing things that might lead to harm to child or home then by all means- stop them… but try to do it in a way that redirects them into a more positive activity. You want to be able to look back on your images and smile thinking of how you snuggled up together on the floor and had a tickle fight- not about how you yelled at little George and he stormed off in tears.