Taking pictures of kids is one of the most popular uses for digital cameras. This is another article that we present to you for taking better kids pictures.
 

To Pose or not to Pose – the case for Candids When you ask a child to pose, you may get varying reactions, looks and faces. If your subject is cooperative you’ll probably end up with a nice portrait. But sometimes, catching your little one candidly – in a “surprise moment” – can often produce a more pleasing photo.
For this shot, we asked the young boy to smile for the camera. He cooperated with this open mouthed smile, but his pose otherwise seems kind of static.	Later in the day, we found him playing near the pool. Instead of posing him, we called out his name, he turned and we captured him looking more natural.
For this photo, the young lady was quite aware that we were taking her picture. We captured her with a nice smile	Using a telephoto lens, we waited patiently. She was unaware that we took this candid shot with a more relaxed look.
Here again we asked the young girl to stop what she was doing to take this shot. She cooperated by giving us a generous smile.	In this photo, you can see that we were able to capture her inner smile. We didn’t ask for one yet her running activity produced a great one.

 
Of course these tips are subjective and there is no right nor wrong way – especially if the subject is your own child! Candids are just another tool to add to your gadget bag.
 
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Once again, patience counts

Sometimes the only way to catch the perfect photo is to take a lot of them until you achieve the desired result. To retain the feeling of motion, I used a slow shutter speed (1/60th of a second). My goal was to “freeze” the young girl’s face, yet convey movement. After taking about twenty photos, I finally snapped one that I liked by being persistent (and patient).
I took about twenty photos similar to this one using a relatively slow shutter speed. While it captures the motion of the young girl, overall the photo is too blurred.	Here I snapped while the young girl is at the top of her swing where her velocity is zero. By waiting for this exact moment, I’ve been able to stop most of the motion.

The Creative versus the Personal

I’ve learned from my many years as a photographer that there are two distinct sides to my work. One side is the creative and the other side is the personal. I’ll explain.

Let’s take the family vacation as an example. The long cross-country drive has all of the family members packed into the station wagon on the road to that fabulous destination. The trip is going take me to some gorgeous landscapes. And when I arrive, my creative juices are screaming to photograph the vistas that I’ve been dreaming about for what seems like forever. But hold on! What’s also tugging at me is the family – remember this is a family vacation.
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