I’m sorry….(not sorry) in advance for the over-sharing from my son’s 4th birthday session! This little guy is my world, and he is by far my favorite photographic subject. My man’s birthday was actually on Sunday, so this post is a few days late, but we spent the weekend celebrating with family and all day yesterday was spent playing with new toys and recuperating from the whirlwind weekend. These images were taken toward the beginning of November as a combo 4th birthday/family session in Argyle, just north of Ft. Worth. Taking your own child’s photo and your family photos as a photographer is no easy feat–I have to use my tripod to capture the family stuff and then I have to coach my husband on how to frame a few decent shots of my little and I. Not going to lie–it’s exhausting and not something I really look forward to enduring. However, I have always found that the end product makes it worth it. Plus, I like the take the family out for dinner on H. Parker Photography’s dime as a “Christmas party” so to speak, and there are margaritas involved for the adults and chocolate milk for the little, so that helps ease the pain. People often ask me how I capture pictures of my own son given that he is a photographer’s child and has long ago been deadened to lure of smiling for the camera. The truth is that I have a very difficult time, and I always bring along bribery (marshmallows or Smarties) to get instant smiles without any sticky mess. Many parents will hold a bigger bribe over their kids heads (like ice cream), but I’ve found that for a four year old the treat is too far removed from what you are expecting them to do, so I prefer to dole out the treats liberally during the session and worry less about perfect behavior and more about moving quick and capturing what I can in a very small time frame (30 minutes or less). I have also been extremely careful NOT to teach Holden the word “cheese” for photo-taking. It only produces fake smiles and is really one of the worst things you can do as far as capturing candid, organic moments with your kids. Of course, he has learned “cheese” from other sources–family, school, TV, life–and that’s okay. I just try to avoid pushing that during our session. The last tip I have for photographing your own child is to make it fun. During Holden’s 3rd year photo session, I rented a beautiful vintage pedal car from Rent My Dust. He had a ball playing around in that car and the smiles were so organic. This year I didn’t have such a big prop, but I did bring along a little yellow airplane (it’s actually just some Hobby Lobby knick knack that lives on his bookshelf normally). He only played with that airplane for maybe 5 minutes, but it was something new to his world and allowed me to capture 5-10 minutes of genuine happiness. Hope you enjoy the glimpse into my life and my heart. Merry Christmas to all!
Heather of H. Parker Photography is a Ft. Worth Newborn Photographer also specializing baby and child photography in Forth Worth, Texas and surrounding areas including but not limited to Dallas, and Roanoke.
Heather, I adore your newborn photography work– you are quite the talented child photographer as well! If you can get your own kid to sit still for a photograph, no doubt you are amazing with other children as well! 🙂 Ft. Worth families are lucky to have you around!
What a doll! No wonder child photography is a specialty. Never knew FT Worth Photographers have such brilliantly deep and rich colors to work with. These are just lovely. What an adorable subject for fine art photography. Enjoy him, they grow very quickly.
He is SO handsome!!