• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Fitness
    • Running
    • Race Reviews
    • Training
  • Family
    • Food & Recipes
    • Parenting
  • Travel
    • Asheville – A native’s view
  • Crafts/DIY
    • DIY
    • Parties
    • #15in15
    • 12 Projects in 12 Months
    • Jaime’s Etsy Shop
  • Things Jaime Loves
    • What I’m Reading
    • Shop Kidizen
  • Contact Me
    • About Jaime – Asheville NC Mom Blogger
    • Terms of Service
  • Nav Widget Area

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Google+
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

Love, Jaime

LoveJaime.com - Asheville NC blogger, DIY, crafts, parenting, fitness, food, LIFEstyle blog by Jaime McKee

How to get the best photos of your child #photography #kids #avl

This post is in collaboration with The Portrait Studio. While I’ve been compensated for the post, all opinions are my own.

My son is a professional photography subject. He’s been photographed since he was minutes old, and for the first year of his life, I took photos of him every Wednesday and on the last day of each month – not to mention the daily cell phone shots I would take. We had a lot of professional photos taken of him during his second year, as well.

While he’s a pro, he is rarely cooperative. Some of his “professional” pictures look like smiling, happy family photos, when they really capture him crying. Our family portraits taken this past summer started with him glaring at the camera.

  best-photos-of-kids2   

It’s only taken 4 years – and many photos – to figure out what helps him get through the entire photography process. We visited The Portrait Studio in Asheville this past Saturday and it was like night and day compared to our visit to a studio more than a year ago. I even have a DVD of more than 30 photos where he is genuinely smiling.

best-photos-of-kids1

1. If your child is old enough to understand what’s about to happen, talk to them about the photographer the day before. And then the morning of. Let them know what to expect.

2. Ask your child what kind of photos they want to take. My son was in “squirrel mode” this past weekend. I warned the photographer and staff at The Portrait Studio and they went along with it. He would pretend to be a squirrel in between the real photos I wanted.

3. Keep the sessions short. While as a mom I would LOVE to have dozens of perfect shots, I know that I’m only going to hang a few in my home. A young child won’t have the attention span to allow an hour-long photo shoot to happen. When I called The Portrait Studio to set up my appointment, they let me know that the entire process would take about an hour to an hour and a half. (We were in and out in an hour.)

4. Come prepared with something for the child(ren) to do when you are dealing with selecting your photos. They aren’t going to want to sit still.

best-photos-of-kids4

At The Portrait Studio, my son knew that someone he didn’t know was going to be taking photos of him. He ran right in and told the photographers his name. He saw the Lego table set up and was so excited to play, but I told him we couldn’t play with the Legos until we were done taking photos. He was mostly ok and when he’d get sidetracked, I reminded him of the play time he’d have after the photos were taken.

He was caught off guard when they switched out the backgrounds once, so they let him press the button for the next background change. Problem solved.

best-photos-of-kids3

They double-teamed to get the shots they wanted, and make him smile. So many studios have the photographer acting as the entertainer and there is only so much the photographer can do at one time. The Portrait Studio handled my boy perfectly (even playing with him while I selected the perfect photos before we left.)

The selection process of our photos was quick and painless. The longest part was choosing the poses I wanted out of more than 30 good ones. They had packages that included so many prints plus the CD with all of the photos all the way down to selecting one or two poses. With each package, you could add on a photo book, calendar or canvas and there were other products we didn’t even get into. After I narrowed ours down to 6 poses, it took a few minutes of waiting for the CD to be ready, before we left. (My prints will be here later this week.)

best-photos-of-kids5

The toughest part – after selecting the photographs I wanted – was getting my boy to leave the studio. Honestly, it took about 10 minutes to convince him to get to the door, and when we stepped outside he was furious with me. I’m already trying to plan our next visit, that will include the baby. There’s no sitting fee, so I can get newborn shots and family shots in one photo shoot and feel comforted that we’re getting the best photos of my family.

With such a great selection of backgrounds and activities, we will definitely be heading back. I knew I wanted something for Valentine’s Day, but now I have more ideas with their chalkboard and the ruler to measure the kids.

The Portrait Studio in Asheville is located at 1833 Hendersonville Road, Suite #170 (in Meridian Place). Be sure to visit their website to make an appointment and check them out on Facebook! To make things even sweeter, The Portrait Studio is running a Making Memories special right now – you can receive 20 portraits for $20!

Can you even handle these photos?

best-photos-of-kids6

What tips do you have for photographing a young child?

Share the love...Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
0Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Email this to someone
email

Related Articles

February 1, 2016 5:00 am Jaime 16 Comments Filed Under: family, photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Julie @ Running in a Skirt says

    February 1, 2016 at 8:35 am

    Jaime!!!!! Those photos are so adorable!! You will love having them. I love the small details The Portrait Studio did to keep your kiddo happy AND get the photos. What a great place.

    Reply
  2. Karen Hartzell (@InTheKitchenKP) says

    February 1, 2016 at 9:40 am

    love these! I am so jealous I don’t live near you to go to the same studio! I would be booking an appt in minutes to get results like this! Awesome!

    Reply
  3. Heather Johnson says

    February 1, 2016 at 10:03 am

    We take our own photos of our kids. We usually take dozens and dozens to get one or two nice ones!

    Reply
  4. MyTeenGuide says

    February 1, 2016 at 11:11 am

    Those are cute photos. Your son is adorable! I can use these tips for our twins.

    Reply
  5. Amanda Love says

    February 1, 2016 at 11:27 am

    I would get amazing pic of my daughter when she was younger. All with her smiling. Not I have to bribe her to smile and even then she would give a smirk or a growl or some funny face. It’s funny to see but I wish it was different. Great tips.

    Reply
  6. Emmy says

    February 1, 2016 at 12:14 pm

    So happy you have had good experiences. And yes you definitely need a photographer who likes kids and is able to roll with the punches.

    Reply
  7. allison says

    February 1, 2016 at 1:57 pm

    CUTENESS! And tip #3 especially is spot on! Can’t wait to see more and more photos. Squee!

    Reply
  8. Chelley @ A is For Adelaide says

    February 1, 2016 at 2:54 pm

    These are such great tips! I know that if I give my daughter some control over the photos, she does SO much better… and her sister follows suit!

    Reply
  9. Toughcookiemommy says

    February 1, 2016 at 8:46 pm

    I’m always looking for great tips on how to take the perfect photos. They are priceless mementos that can be enjoyed for years to come.

    Reply
  10. Annemarie LeBlanc says

    February 2, 2016 at 5:27 am

    I’d have to check them out! This would be a great idea to document every child’s birthday! Your son is really photogenic! He looked like he did have a lot of fun during the shoot.

    Reply
  11. Natalie says

    February 2, 2016 at 7:51 am

    It is always such a pain to photograph my family. My daughter has the shortest attention span ever! These are great tips!

    Reply
  12. Liz Mays says

    February 2, 2016 at 8:45 am

    It’s too cute that it went so well he didn’t even want to leave. You can’t ask for better than that. I find it super hard to choose photos too!

    Reply
  13. Jeanine says

    February 2, 2016 at 8:54 am

    My kiddos are so hard to get photos of. The older ones love it and pose and bug me constantly for photos but the younger two, its like pulling teeth! Great tips.

    Reply
  14. Susanna @Zealous Mom says

    February 2, 2016 at 1:30 pm

    Oh my goodness! These are so stinking precious. Now I am super excited about going on Sat. I especially love the one of him leaning on the bench. Little cool cat.

    Reply
  15. Amber NElson says

    February 5, 2016 at 10:01 pm

    It is so hard to get my kiddos to sit still. Great tips!

    Reply
  16. Cynthia R says

    February 5, 2016 at 11:14 pm

    HE took some great photos that day it looks like. I love your tip about bringing something a long to keep the kid busy while you review photos.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

About Jaime

I'm a 30-something-year-old living in Asheville, NC with my husband, preschooler son, baby girl and cat. I'm a girl of many trades. I run, craft, sew and so much more. I blog all about it.
Jaime McKee on Google+

Disclosure

Jaime McKee/LoveJaime.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.



Popular posts

  • DIY Headache Bath Bombs (with essential oils)
  • Essential Oils to Diffuse During Cold and Flu Season
  • Pre-cooking chicken for the week = winning at meal planning
  • Holiday party games roundup
  • Things to do with kids in Asheville

Footer

Member of:

FitFluential Is Fitness Found SoFab Badge
  • Terms of Service

© Copyright 2016 · Pretty Lifestyle WordPress Theme by: PDCD