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!)