Four gorgeous little ones and a handsome young man—now that makes a perfect fall photo shoot!

My (not so) little girl turned 4 yesterday!  It’s hard to believe she is already preschool age!  Here are some of my favorite pictures from our recent “photo shoot” (which my girls still think are so much fun and so do I!):

There’s nothing better than a baby in a bucket.  Do you agree?

I’ve had the privilege of photographing this cutie pie since she was a wee little thing.  She is a beautiful little one-year-old and while a bit shy of the weird lady with the camera (that’s me), she was as sweet as can be!

Her mom (who always has fun ideas) wanted to get out the bubbles and, boy, was this little girl entranced!

There’s some personality peeking through!

I had the fun job of photographing these handsome little guys recently.  These are a few of my favorite pictures—and as with little boys, most were taken while they were playing!

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!)

I know that my favorites may not always be a client’s favorites, so I am admitting that I am posting these only selfishly as my favorites!  These kids are so gorgeous–it makes it so easy to get fun ones!  The first one of the little guy makes me smile…..

Some silly pictures of my two year old:

Dressed up and impressed with the neighbor mowing his lawn.  I know….our lives are exciting!

Sitting out the rain.  This is the only second that she actually held the umbrella over her head.  You can imagine it doesn’t do as much good like this:

And here is a picture of my youngest niece, displaying what I believe is called the Moro reflex (arm straight up):

Doesn’t it seem like this has been a gloomy summer in Grand Rapids?  I had a family session scheduled this last week and of course we encountered thunderstorms!  We tried to squeeze in as many pictures as we could under the circumstances.  This family is incredibly photogenic….look at the great smiles and laughs from these kids!  I don’t think I have ever taken pictures of kids who are so good at sitting and smiling for the camera!

I had to “ask” them to be silly, which of course they were good at, too!

A few individual pictures:

I have some family pictures, too, which I will post soon!

My little girl is turning two on Sunday.  We took some pictures this week and big sis was my “assistant”….working hard to get her little sister to smile!  It kind of worked…..