This October the Cotton Candies scheduled a family photo shoot with our favorite photographer. We were so excited to get some good pictures of the three of us because we hadn’t done a photo shoot in three years, since Little Cotton Candy was Baby Cotton Candy.
I signed us up for a mini-session this time, as opposed to the full hour, with the idea that an almost-four-year-old’s attention span wouldn’t last more than 30 minutes. Plus, I liked that was a more affordable option. We showed up at our location in downtown Austin to get some photos in a park; it was our photographer’s idea, as she thought it would be nice to have a space where Little Cotton Candy could run around and get some energy out. It was a beautiful day, a little cool, but not too windy, and we were all dressed up and ready to pose for the camera for half an hour.
But Little Cotton Candy had other plans. I had conveniently forgotten that of late he had become extremely camera-shy, demurring every single time I tried to snap a quick phone pic to post on Instagram. (I have a lot of super cute photos where his hands are covering his face, and also some amazing ones of his back.)
Typical three-/four-year-old pose from Little Cotton Candy
So…instead of him going with the flow and playing while Jennifer snapped some great candid shots, Little Cotton Candy decided he didn’t want any pictures taken of him and so he ducked, ran away, hid his face, and generally did everything he could to avoid Jennifer getting any photos. I started to internally freak out, and the first half hour was extremely stressful for me. But Jennifer was amazingly patient, and told us she could stick around longer in order to wait for Little CC to get comfortable and get some good shots. Meanwhile, she managed to sneak in some amazing ones. She directed us to do lots of different things: running with Little Cotton Candy, holding him on Mr. Cotton Candy’s shoulders, checking out the turtles over near the water…and she managed to get these great photos…
In the end, she ended up staying for an hour and a half, three times the agreed upon time slot for our session. We were so grateful and amazed that she was able to capture such great photos in such a difficult situation. Next time we will book a full length session, for sure!
In case you’re considering a family photo shoot and you have any three or four-year-olds with stubborn tendencies, here are a few tips.
1. Try not to have expectations. As I am in the process of learning, kids do NOT always know how to go with the flow. If you go into the photo session with the expectation that your kid is going to smile and pose and be happy…then you might be setting yourself (and your kid) up for failure.
2. Bribing doesn’t always work. We told Little Cotton Candy that we would get ice cream after the photo session if he went along with it and posed for photos. Didn’t help. Maybe a more immediate bribe (like a baggie full of Goldfish or animal crackers to dole out after good photos) would have been more effective.
3. Bring along a potty. Since we were out in a park with no public restrooms, it would have been so much better for Little Cotton Candy if he could have gotten his nervous pees out in a portable kids’ potty.
4. Give yourself plenty of time. When in doubt, book the longer photo session in case you run into any issues…and just so your little ones have time to warm up to the camera.
5. Relax and have fun. Once we got into the session and started ignoring the camera and just having fun, Little Cotton Candy loosened up and Jennifer was able to get some good photos.
Good luck! Anyone else planning a family photo shoot soon? Or have you done one recently and have some tips?
guest
Great pictures!!
We ran into this same situation with our mini session in November. My 2.5 year old wanted nothing to do with the camera or listening. Our mini session was supposed to be 15 min and we pushed it to 30 min long – even so he never really warmed up. We hardly took any shots with us actually looking at the camera – just having my boys run around. I left the photo shoot feeling like it was a huge waste of time and we would get no good pics for this year.
Then I got an email from the photographer and she was editing them and knew I was deflated from our session. She said not to worry and that she thought this years session pics were even better than last year.
Sure enough! When I got the online gallery the photographer was right! They are fantastic pictures!!
I’m glad that your shoot worked out too
guest
Great photos! I know where you had these shot
We love Austin, but sadly don’t live there anymore. And yes, photo shoots with little ones are hard. This year we have a 2 and 3 year old, and getting a photo of all of us was difficult. My mom took the pictures for us and it took TWO short photo sessions on separate days to get ONE that was decent. Someone was blurry in most shots or someone had their eyes closed and after about 15 minutes, the kids were DONE 
grapefruit / 4085 posts
Yup! My almost-4 was the same way and wanted nothing to do with pics with all of us. We did end up getting some good ones (with some wrangling) esp after our photographer did a bunch of her solo – posing and dancing around, which I think made her feel a bit special.
guest
This reminds me of a recent debacle where my husband’s grandparents wanted a photo with their ten great-grandchildren, nine of whom are 5 and under, and five of whom are 2 and under. It took four photographers each taking dozens of photos to get ONE halfway decent photo where we can see most everyone’s face and only two kids had their fingers in their noses!