Snaps of Little Chaps!

Zulily is such a great site for busy Mums - they send out an email every day with lots of new bargains to be found for babies, children and (of course!) Mums!  For example, Zulily have a deal where you can buy this fantastic skyline wall art and this gorgeous kids rain gear (perfect now that the snow has been replaced by torrential downpours!).  I've only just become a member - a friend told me about the site, but I know that I'll be looking forward to devouring those daily emails!

Zulily also run some great competitions on their blog and have one at the moment asking for tips on how best to take photographs of children. Now I love taking photos of anything and everything, but especially kids having fun.  I was very lucky in that my Dad loved taking cine film (does that show my age?) and we have a wonderful record of our family growing up which was pretty unusual for the time.  Photos are so important - who doesn't love sitting down on a wet and windy afternoon in front of the fire and browsing through their photo albums reminiscing?

So here are my top tips on how to take great photos of children

1.  Take ALOT of photos - set your camera to "burst" mode if you are able to which will take a flurry of photos one after another.  Often, if you only take one photo, you'll miss the "moment", eg, when they land in that puddle, or they'll be looking a bit gormless!  This is particularly a problem with compact cameras which can have a significant "shutter lag" (time taken to take the photo after pressing the shutter) so learn to click a bit before you think it's "the moment" too. At least if you take a batch of photos, you're likely to have one or two great ones in there!  (this applies to photos of pets too!)

Take lots of photos so you don't miss the "moment"

2.  Get down off your high horse!  Of course, what I mean is, get down to the same level as your child to take the photo - the results will be much more intimate and interesting.

The Childs Eye view

From the "High Horse"

3.  If you are trying to get an intimate shot of a child when they are engrossed in something, try to avoid using the flash as it will distract them and spoil the moment and your shot.

Hopefully, by following the above, your photos will get better and better with time and you'll be proud to show them off to friends and family, or even enter some competitions.  Zulily are also running a photo competition on Instagram where they are looking for the biggest grin, there have been loads of great entries, all really cute - I wouldn't like to be the judge on that one!


Happy Snapping!