Memento - A Picture Tells A Thousand Words

Kids are the Hardest Models - No Kidding

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James, half-smiled after seeing the camera

Margay and Rhianna have opposite poses for the camera

Jake is an All-Camera kiddo

Taking Pictures

"I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it." - US President Harry Truman

There are no set rules for Child Photography. I guess, there couldn't be any sane photographer who would want to venture into taking pictures of single-digit aged kids and make a living out of it. Good luck. With the limited attention span and their natural playfulness, your studio will surely be a mess.

Here are some resources I found, (there are so many, but tend to be repeating each other):
* How to take Photos of Children
* How to take Great Pictures of Your Children
* How to take Great Photos of Your Child

Reading the titles of their lists just makes you imagine how hard it is to even put a headline to this patience-testing endeavor :)

Overall, kids are the best models and provide the best natural smiles and images that are for keeps. Bottomline is that you don't know how patient you are until you are taking pictures of kids.

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So here is my own list:

1. Don't Count - Nor Say Cheese - Why? Obviously, once you say 1, 2, 3, you will hear someone say 4, or when you say cheese, they will change their smile to a fighting Naruto profile. With kids, you just take pictures, the more natural, the better.

I just placed the camera in front of Jake for him to show his teeth full of chocolate and use it as a mirror....voila!

2. Catch Them Unguarded. If you don't want them to have a statue-like pose, you can catch them off-guard while they are walking or eating or picking their nose. Zia was looking for her mama, when I was already behind the lens and greeted her "Good morning, Zia-pot" and she stopped to pose :) If your kid-model loves posing, then you have less problems, right?

Others tips that MAY work:

3. Give them your camera and have them take your picture and then when it's your turn they will follow whatever pose you just did. Ok, just make sure you did something that is a non-compromising pose :)

4. If your camera is expensive, don't do what I just said. Buy a fake cam and let them play with it.

If that doesn't work, - go back to just taking shot by shot, frame by frame,

5. Besides, that's why you're using Digital, take a lot of pictures. You don't know that among your 2GB of shots, you may be able get a masterpiece.

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Congratulations to Vangie for giving birth to Ali last Saturday, August 25. We were betting that it'd be August 25, but her 1.5hr labor came the next day. Ali's details are:

name: Aliana Simone
born: 8/25/07 7:01 pm
weight: 7 lbs. 15.5 oz.
length: 21 in.

Welcome to Anna Maria to the Christian world. My first god daughter in Canada was so sweet and didnt even cry the whole celebration last Sunday. I also met Zach, a god son in the Philippines while I was in Cebu. Woohoo....

August is ending and is in fact one of the most youthful months I've experienced. The best thing of all - I was able to capture them in pictures....without saying, "Say Cheese"!

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