Never work with children or animals, unless you want to.

Todays post is a tutorial, a guide, some tips, some advice a friendly little titbit of information to do with what you will.

It is loosely linked to my post about family photography but is slightly more specific. KIDS!!!

More accurately photographing them, these little gems will help, are by no means exhaustive and should all be ignored at some point.

Here goes:

Talk to them first, play with them for a bit. They don't generally react well to a person they have no bond with, the person they can't see because they have a huge camera covering their face so break down the barriers first. I even let them hold the camera, explain to them (briefly) how it works, let them take a photo. It all helps in relaxing them. Keep talking to them and keep eye contact as much as you can, you will lose the connection if you are forever behind the camera.

Change your perspective, I am six feet tall and that rarely make for a great angle to take a kids portrait from. Higher than that can work better, stand on a sturdy chair or bench and get them to look up. Then get down to their level, they will be happier with you down there with them and it makes for a far more natural image.

It's all about the eyes! Focus on the eyes, this is pretty much the key to all portraits (gateway to the soul etc) but it is so important with children. If you know how to change the focus point in your camera then do that, if you don't shoot a little wider and focus the middle of the camera on your subjects eye, you can crop the photo to a pleasing composition later.

Think about your location, they need to be happy and the background needs to look nice, even if you are super clever (more about this another day) and you can make the background fuzzy it still needs to not be the focus of the picture, It's all about the little ones.

Clothes and props. Some toys and props can help to distract but can also mean that is all the child looks at so only use if the child is upset or really unruly. Clothes are important, parents will want their babies to look smart or cute but advise that it is all about them feeling comfortable and happy. What the child wears should be a reflection of their character so if he doesn't normally wear a suit don't make him wear one today. Parents will love the photos more in the future for it.

Kids will soon lose patience if they are made to pose for a long time, they will also lose patience if you are overly specific of where they put their hands, feet, legs and they will get really sick of holding a fake smile. Keep it relaxed, keep it natural and keep it fun.

The perfect look is elusive, shoot more photos than you need, you will only have a short window to get the shot so don't miss it by waiting for it.

There is lots of technical stuff you can do which I'll cover another day, just start by thinking about the above points. The rest can follow, it's more important to get those photos now, take lots of photos, you'll be sad when your subjects get too big.