You have adorable children, but every time you try to DOCUMENT their adorableness on camera, they turn into crazy people.  Cheesy smiles, stiff poses, sticking out their tongues, closing their eyes tight, hiding behind furniture.  Does this sound familiar?

Or maybe you purchased a ‘fancy camera’ so you could take better photos, but you turned on auto mode and were so bummed that the photos didn’t look any different than your camera phone photos.  Does THIS sound familiar?

I’m here for you, friend.  And I’m so excited to share this online course that I built to help you FIX these problems!

Yay!  How do these online photography classes work?

Once you register for a course, you can begin whenever you like and go at your own pace.  The courses are broken into smaller topics- each has a video lesson and a pdf workbook so you can read or watch, whichever works for your learning style.  Many of the lessons also have fun, simple homework assignments to make sure the concepts sink in.  Best of all, these courses don’t expire so there’s no pressure.  You can wait until life slows down to begin… or plow through everything now and come back later for reference as you need it.

How do I sign up?

Click here!

And, as a thank you for reading this far into this blog post… here are FIVE FREE PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS FOR YOU!

5 Easy Ways To Improve Your Photos!

1. Never say ‘say cheese’… it brings out the fakest smiles. Instead, try making a game out of taking photos… it relaxes the child and guarantees more natural expressions.  Find something to hide behind (a tree, a wall, a toy, a person, etc), count to three, and then jump out + take the photo. This also works in reverse, asking the child to hide behind something (or someone) until the count of three. The counting-to-three part is important because the added suspense makes for bigger smiles.

2. “Don’t Smile” is a trick I sometimes use to get smiles from kids of all ages. It initially causes confusion, so you need to prod them along a little… ‘I said no smiles… I see a tiny smile… hey you’re smiling!… but I said NOT to smile…. oh man, now you’re smiling SO BIG!’ Takes a couple seconds, but it usually leads to genuine smiles + laughter.

3.  Tickle Monster.  When you’re getting a stale expression or a ‘cheesy’ smile from a kid, go in for tickles. It shakes things up and makes them forget they’re having their photo taken. Tickles work great when there’s an adult in the photo, but they can also work for solo photos. Use a feather duster or a long toy to tickle from a distance. Or for little babies, lay them on their backs and tickle from overhead by using your hair or your nose to tickle their tummy.

4. When photographing siblings with a newborn, safety needs to be the number one priority. The safest position for toddlers with a newborn is LAYING DOWN (not sitting in a chair, holding the baby). Place a neutral blanket on the ground next to the window. Lay the older sibling down so the window is to the SIDE of them and then gently place the newborn next to them. Make the toddler laugh by tickling their tummy before you take the photo.

5. GET LOW.  Or experiment with different angles of the same scene. (This works especially well when your kiddo is occupied enough to stay in one place while you try different perspectives on the same scene.)  A small change in perspective and it’s a drastically different photo!

Yay!  I hope you’ll implement some of these free photo tips and I hope you’re excited to learn SO MUCH MORE in my DSLR BASICS photography class!  See you in class!

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