Getting great pictures of your kids

People often ask me how they can get great pictures of their kids. In all honesty, I tell them that another person should take them! It's true for the most part that your own kids are your worst subjects. In the event that you can't get someone to photograph your kids, here are a few tips that might be helpful.

• Get close. Not up their noses, but close enough that the background is not the subject of the photograph.
  
• Check your surroundings. Look to see what is in the line of your picture. It's nice if your daughter is in the photo and smiling at you, it's not nice if she has a telephone coming out of the back of her head.
  
• Move around and get down. I've not seen too many successful photos of children that were taken from the height of a full grown adult. It's an awkward angle. Get down to their level and you will improve the photo and your ability to perhaps get them to work with you.
  
• Keep them out of the middle...but maintain balance. That's a little trickier. We've all been taught that centered pictures are desirable. That may be, but they are also flat and lack dynamism. Try moving your subject from the center to the left or the right; this will begin to incorporate the rule of thirds.
  
• Light, light, light. This is probably the most important basic element in a successful photo. Go towards the light. It separates a good photo from a great one and will help improve your camera's ability to focus as most cameras look for contrast to guide their auto-focus mechanism.
• Can the cheese. It's often one of the worst faces made by children so I try not to say it in any of my photo sessions. I try to capture them doing what they do and being who they are, even if they aren't looking at me or the camera. Eventually they will and it will be a great shot, but until then just capturing them being kids is often as great a shot as any cheese shot could ever be.