Photographing Toddlers | Featuring Cade Cook | Child Photography

Hi Friends! 

Today I want to talk about photographing toddlers. This is the age little ones are testing their boundaries, discovering the world around them and love to say "NO." I believe this is also one of the most challenging stages to photograph because not only will they refuse to be cute for a picture, they are also little balls of energy that won't stay still. 

I have five children of my own and learned real early that if I want to get a good picture of them, I had to do one of two things. I could bribe them for their cooperation with a toy, stickers, or even a nice dessert or I could just let them be kids. Bribing them works but I was teaching them to be selfish. Only behaving if there was something in it for them. However, when I just let them be the incredible fun loving little beings that they are, I got fantastic images.  They were not concerned that mommy was holding a camera and was going to make them smile  for a picture. 

I took this knowledge into my work with toddlers. Rather than watching parents get irritated that their vision for the perfect session is being ruined by their toddler having a tantrum, I explain that little will get hot, uncomfortable, or just not want to be photographed. But, that is totally okay. In order to avoid this, I encourage parents to work around their child. Let them be a kid. Play with them instead of trying to pose them. While this will mean more movement for mom and dad during the session, the results are fantastic! Parents get a gallery of them having a good time with their little one and genuine smiles.

Featured on today's blog is Cade. A perfect example of everything I have said above. He was initially uncooperative. I mean, why would he cooperate? He doesn't know me. But once we let him play, he no longer cared that some crazy lady was taking pictures of him. He was happy playing with his mom and "G" (his very energetic grandmother).

We decided to do this session super early in the morning. If I remember correctly, it was 8:30 am. The idea was to avoid the intense heat of the day. However, in South Carolina, our heat can be scorching hot from sunrise to sunset at times. This day, we had heat and humidity. Yet, Cade was happy and he did not mind the weather.

Meet Cade and his mom Hayley! Hayley traveled from North Carolina to visit her mother. 
While visiting, she messaged me about doing a session with her son. I was so excited to 
do it for her. You see, not to long ago, I did Hayley's wedding pictures. What an honor to
photograph her son! Cade did a fantastic job of being a great, energetic little boy in front of my camera.

Does he look posed? 

He was not posed. He was playing
with his mom and 'G'. 

Here is is climbing through a tube smiling at his
Grandmother who was waiting for him on the other side.

Here he had just come down the slide with his Grandma. 
He loved playing with his mom and 'G'. (That's what he calls his Grandmother.)
I think it's adorable!