Nailing the dreaded iPhone Family Photo
I know it can seem like a lost cause to hand your mom the phone and try to get a shot of everyone smiling on Christmas. When young kids are involved, that shot is NOT easy to get! Here’s what I do.
1) Before asking the closest person to take the shot, take a quick glance around the room. Your 90 year old grandmother will probably struggle with your iPhone. Your brother-in-law will take 1 shot and be done. But your 16 year old niece who spends hours on social media?….potential! Another great option is picking the person in the room who your kids find the funniest. If your iPhone photographer can get your kids to smile, your job just became a lot easier!
2) Consider asking the person taking the photo to get click-happy! You can always delete the bad shots later. If it’s someone you know well, you can even ask them to click through the crazy and not wait for everyone to be looking and smiling. (This is especially important if you’re hoping for a fun candid shot.)
3) Don’t get the kids until you’re ready to take the picture. Maybe this just applies to people with active toddlers…but you don’t want to waste that short attention span on the moment before the shot is being taken.
4) Consider holding children who are small enough for this. It’s much easier to control the photo when you have your child close!
5) Make it fun for the kids! Here are some tactics:
The fake-out drop (When you pretend to almost-drop your baby/toddler for a laugh. Make sure YOU keep looking at the camera and smiling though!)
Run into the shot (Anyone else have a wild 2 year old? I like to “fly” him into the shot like an airplane. The hope is that he’ll still be smiling for the moment the photo is taken. Again…make sure YOU keep looking at the camera and smiling!)
Say something you’ll know they’ll laugh at right as the picture is being taken. “Ew! I smell stinky feet!!! yUuUuCk!!!”
Tickles! What kid doesn’t love tickles?
Swing your kid by the arms (if this is a game you play and they enjoy)
Hang your kid upside down (again…assuming this is a thing your child enjoys and you feel comfortable with)
Blow raspberries or make silly kissy noise for your baby
The photos below were taken (on my camera) by my husband, a family member, or while sitting on a tripod!
This photo was taken with a tripod. I clicked the button and then danced around and was silly with my son during my 10 second window before squatting down next to him.
This photo was about our 5th tripod shot, and my son was officially over it! So I just told my husband to look at me instead of the camera, and I adore this photo, even though Thatcher isn’t looking!
We were about 3 minutes into photo taking, and the only thing my son wanted to do was RUN, so we played together as my husband took a few action shots!
My mom took this photo. My son was absolutely REFUSING to be picked up, so I bribed him with the promise of a single m&m. Then I fake-dropped him a few times until we got this shot! His smile is genuine because he was laughing and having fun (he loves to be fake-dropped)!
I was jumping around with my son, and he was enjoying being bounced! I have technically better shots, but I sort of love this more-candid one!