AGK Why it matters to let your kiddo be super silly at your family photo session
Scenario 1: Kiddo is lining up for family portraits and starts making faces. Someone in the family notices and tells the kiddo to be serious and smile. Kiddo now glares at me for the rest of the session. The energy is heavy and stressed, and the parents feel like nothing is going right. We are not having fun. There might be tears. (Could be a parent, the kiddo, or the photographer on the way home — who’s to say?!)
Scenario 2: Kiddo is lining up for family portraits and starts making faces. I laugh, take photos, and tell him he’s adorable and I love what he’s doing. Kiddo cracks up laughing or makes more faces. I take more photos. And then I ask if we can try one “this way,” demonstrating a lovely moment or a nice smile. Kiddo poses for a few moments. Snap snap snap — I get the shots. Kiddo goes back to being silly. I keep snapping. We get a full session full of laughter and smiles and silly faces.
Moms, dads, grandparents, aunties, uncles, besties…let them be silly. Let them photobomb a moment. Let them make faces at me. Let them have fun. And let me connect with them to tell them all of this. Because when I then ask for that “perfect portrait pose,” they are so much more inclined to want to play along.
Our time together is meant to be fun, and if we can set that one rule upfront, it helps so much!
