Photographing toddlers

Have you tried photographing toddlers? Little children are cute, they are very natural and they make so many interesting poses and impressions... but if you tried capturing them you know how difficult it is!

First, child might be afraid of you. He will be shy, turn away and may be even run away from you. If it's your child, or your relatives or close friends this will not be a problem of course...

But they move very fast! Faster than you can zoom and frame the picture, and very often faster than autofocus of your camera. This makes photographing them really tricky. If you aren't used to that you will need to try again and again... and then child will get tired and bored.

If child isn't afraid of photographer; and if child isn't moving very fast; and if child isn't asleep it means that child is trying to grab your camera :) Or at least leave his fingerprints on your lens :)

There is no one magic solution to these issues, but there are a few basic things that can help:

• If child doesn't know you, take some time without camera for child to get used to you;
  
• To keep child at one place try to use a toy, or place on a chair or on rocking-horse;
  
• To detract child from you/camera ask somebody else to call the child or to play with him.
  

Remark: pictures above are snapshots of my son. They aren't perfect but they illustrate both the issues and possible solutions.

Remark 2: I used the words 'he' and 'him' not just meaning boys. Using male pronouns is the norm of English when speaking about unknown person (although politicians and managers often say 'him or her' these days trying to please everybody)

Remark 3: Apologies for being pedantic and boring :)


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