This question has come up a few times lately in family sessions with children who are over the age of two. It seems everyone has already been trained by this age to “say cheese” when a camera shows up. I playfully mention they must not have read my blog yet!
I guess looking into the camera and saying cheese or anything else, really….it just doesn’t capture who we really are.
I always try to talk to parents ahead of time and let them know not to worry about trying to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time.
I let them know I don’t really care if the children look at me at all. Eventually, they do end up looking at me…I’m pretty funny sometimes.
Mostly I like to spend some time getting to know the kids I’m working with until they trust me enough to look at me or to play around a bit with me.
Ultimately, I want the experience to be a good one for everyone–especially the children.
I recently heard of a dad who chose not to come to the session with me because of his childhood memories of his family’s portrait sessions. wow.
This is my goal–to create a generation of children who grow up loving the memories of their family portrait sessions.
I’ve found that the families I photograph year after year are building these kinds of memories and relationships with me. Every year their images seem to get better as the children and I build on our relationship.
Okay, so I got a little off track there….
I certainly don’t walk around showing my teeth with a static smile on my face….I’m sure you don’t either.
So please, don’t say {cheese}!
Hang out, give kisses, tell secrets, tell jokes, talk about stinky underwear (Thanks for that one, Tim! evidently it’s from the Chipmunks movie), blow bubbles, eat cookies, eat ice cream, play in the fountain, hide jelly beans in funny places (images coming from that one soon!)….anything but look at me saying {cheese}.
Here’s an example of “look at Stacie and Say Cheese”
And a few examples of just hanging out:
