Photography Techniques & Tips 
1 Comment Top secret! Our best tips on photographing children-Part 1
On a Carnival Cruise ship a few years ago, we were invited to speak to a group of young photographers. After we taught, we sat and listened to the other speakers, one of them a good friend, Drake Busath. A single statement he made stuck in our minds and we have not forgotten it. He said, “When photographing children, you must engage their minds.” This is now our mantra as we work with young children and I thought I would share our top three secrets that we use daily to engage their minds.
Intensity…it may sound weird to link this word with photographing children, but it is at the top of our list. Let me explain. When I say “intensity,” I mean you have to speak to kids like your pants are on fire! If you speak in your normal, everyday voice or in a soft voice with no energy, you will not capture nor hold their attention. I don’t mean yell; I mean speak with intensity. This is why we don’t ask parents or grandparents to help if we are having trouble getting a child’s attention. They just say their name (quietly) and then they may say “look this way” or “smile for Mr. Tim” and they do it in their everyday voice without any extra inflection. That does not help us. No, it takes a dramatic performance to capture and engage their minds.
Ask questions…this top secret tool goes along with intensity. When we ask a question, we don’t let them answer it. Instead, quickly and with much intensity, we say, “NO WAIT! DON’T TELL ME; LET ME GUESS!” That immediately gets their attention and they buy into our game. Many times, we know the answer to the question as it has been noted on our folder from the planning appointment. For example, we may ask their dog’s name, but we really do know it. We act like we don’t know for awhile, so when we guess correctly, they are truly surprised and engaged. Other things we guess at Walden’s: their favorite anything (ie: food, ice cream, drink, cartoon, movie, color), their best friend’s name, their pet’s name, their age, their middle name and so forth. Get comfortable with these questions so you don’t have to put much mental effort into it when you are in the middle of the session.
Sing…it doesn’t matter if you can or cannot sing, this is a sorely underused tool in most sessions. Buy a CD with childrens’ music on it and memorize the songs. I cannot tell you how many times this simple tool has captured a very young child in the middle of a tantrum and calmed them completely down. We were teaching at NEIPP school several years ago and had a baby who was sick as our model. Of course, this was not a great situation. However, I had just talked about the power of singing, and the entire class joined me in the Barney song, just to see if it really worked. When the baby stopped crying and started to look alert, the entire class broke into applause. Try it-it is powerful!
Stay tuned for more Top Secret Tips next week!
Bev
www.timandbevwalden.com
Thank you Bev. As you mentioned how a simple statement stuck in your head during that cruise, your simple statement about collecting the answers about the kids’ favorites has inspired me to add those questions to our client booking form. This will be important not just for our first time clients but our regulars that we see several times a year since their interests change as fast as they are growing.