I still have a hard time thinking of photography as my job or my profession. I think of it as just a hobby of mine that God has allowed me to use to meet new people, to capture memories for my family and for other families, and every once in awhile, He lets me use it for things that are close to my heart.

Some friends of mine and their three beautiful children are planning on adding to their family through adoption.  It blessed me tremendously when they asked me to get some pictures of them for the adoption profile book that birth mothers would look through when choosing a family for their baby.  With a deadline looming, we made plans to get pictures taken, giving ourselves just enough time to get the pictures edited and sent off.  Well, of course rain threatened to ruin our plans.  Instead this beautiful family braved wind, cold, and drizzle to get some pictures.  Here is round one (we ended up adding another session a couple of days later to get a few more pictures for them to choose from….you’ll see those right below this post).

My favorite pictures are those where you can just hear laughter.  I love laughter and I love when we can share it during a session!

Ok, in addition to laughter, I love when couples have a glance……one of them glancing at the other……it makes my heart smile.

Did I mention their delightful children?  I mean just fun, sweet, and beautiful kids!

I gave each kid a chance to “be in the spotlight.”  You’ll be able to tell that they liked it.

The night ended with the rain we were dreading, but it meant some wonderful shots with the umbrella!

Since an adoption profile book needs to really focus on the two people who will be raising a child, we really needed to get more pictures of just Mom & Dad.  The previous session had been cut short and lacked a lot of choices thanks to rain and wind.  So I was happy that I had a chance to spend some more time getting pictures of these two!

Not only is my friend a good mother, she is also beautiful and has such a great smile!

Like his wife, this guy is a terrific parent and one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.  Do they make my job easy or what?!

And just for fun…….

So often I have moms asking me what their children should wear for a session.  I try to encourage them to choose outfits that are expressive of their children’s personalities.  Sure nice neutral colors work well for big groups, but I think bright and fun goes a lot further in making your pictures more memorable.  My goal as a photographer is to find a neutral background so that your child can really stand out.  Colorful and playful outfits make that happen, too.

Plus I think kids just have more fun when they are wearing crazy clothes!

Look how bright her outfit looks in comparison with the background….a pink bucket hat and obnoxiously over-sized galoshes say a lot more about my fun-loving five-year-old than a white t-shirt and denim pants would have.

Patterns seem like a no-no, but they can be fun and not as distracting as one would think.

Photographing toddlers and young children is my favorite thing.  Partly because as a parent, it is the stage of life that my family is in, so I get lots of practice.  Toddlers and preschoolers also are the most expressive, most free, most honest, (and sometimes the most challenging!) of all my subjects.  As a mom, I have learned that when it comes to photographing my young children, bribery incentives are key.  They can be small incentives, but the more incentives there are, the more likely my children will cooperate.

The tops three tips for getting great photos of toddlers?

1. Incentives

2. Incentives

3. Incentives

Today I photographed my 2 1/2 year old.  It was a beautiful spring day, but a bit chilly in the shade.  We’d take a few pictures before she would complain, “It’s chilly!”  Since we were “on location,” I’d promise her, “Smile for one picture and we can go warm up in the van!”  We did this a couple of times.  It worked great and to be honest, I probably got a few better smiles out of her than if it had been a perfect day and she’d had nothing to complain about!

Here she was staring longingly at the van (I love this picture even with the furrowed brow!):

After the bargain of “a smile for a warm van”:

The biggest incentive for the day, though, was the allure of a couple of her favorite toys.  She saw me load them in the van and I assured her that after a few good pictures without them, she could play with them and I’d take pictures of her playing.

Sometimes there are wonderfully classic toys that make great props in a picture.  Unfortunately, my girls’ fav toys fall into the categories of “pink” and “tacky.”

For this series of pictures, I felt like a photographer with People magazine catching a superstar mom out on a walk with her baby.  I mean, does this say “superstar mom” or what?

And as any toddler can, she quickly bored of this and was ready for the next “incentive”—a horsey (and really, what could have been more appropriate with those pink cowgirl boots?!):

And in between all of the bargaining, encouraging, and downright bribery, I got some of these:

My goal in a photo session with your child is to HAVE FUN and hopefully get a few images that are worthy to grace the walls of your home or to mail out to the relatives at Christmas.  All the rest should be memory-making at it’s best (memories, by the way, that were conveniently captured in a picture!).  Those silly pictures with my daughter and her dolly stroller?  Those are the pictures that I will most treasure in 10 years when she is a teenager and quite less likely to be so innocently and sweetly diva-like.

Nobody knows what makes your little one tick better than you do.  Figure out what will get your child excited about having her picture taken and you’ve just made my job a cakewalk!  (Oh, and does this mama/photographer stoop to the level of bribing with candy?  See a post of pictures of my oldest daughter from last year and tell me if you think that giant lollipop was incentive.  I know where to get those beautiful lollipops—let me know if I should bring one to your session!)