THE IMPORTANCE OF PHOTOGRAPHER-CHILD INTERACTION TIME

This is a bit of a continuation and emphasis of a previous article I have shared on the blog about “HOW TO GET REAL, GENUINE SMILES FROM YOUR KIDS”, but a further explanation of why it is vital to come to your session either on time or a couple of minutes early. This will allow us the opportunity to get to know each other. Especially with young children, it’s going to be a little bit scary interacting with someone they’ve never met before. I want to ensure we can really show off your child’s personality, so we want him or her to be comfortable with me and with the environment.

If we were to just throw them into the middle of the session and there’s this stranger with a camera jumping around trying to get them to look and smile (and believe me, sometimes I look ridiculous!), your child is possibly going to tense up and there may even be confusion. We really just want everything to run smoothly!

If you can arrive on time, this will give me time to introduce myself to your child, and to try to get a vibe on how the session will go. Some children warm up right away, while others need some extra time to start to feel comfortable and come out of their shells. And that’s OK.

After I introduce myself, I will try to get to know your child. I’ll ask them questions about what he or she likes, doesn’t like, sing songs, maybe play a game, etc. As suggested in my previous article, I will also benefit from knowing some of this information prior to the session. This time is beneficial to just to break the ice a little, so by the time the session starts your child is happy and more familiar with me. Making sure you’re there on time in order to not rush the session is probably one of the most important tips I can give you for your child’s session.

Once we’ve done a session and your child realizes that I’m not scary and we have fun together, the next session shouldn’t need much warm up time at all, if any. But for the very first session together, I cannot emphasize it enough!