P#14 Q5B: What Are Some Unique Ways to Compose My Shots When Photographing Children?

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Vik Orenstein: You don't have to take pictures of just the face. Children's little hands are so cute, especially when they're doing things like finger-painting or holding a flower and pulling the petals off. Their toes are also adorable.

You don't have to just do the head to toe or the head and shoulder shot. You can just really go nuts and do macros even. Shoot your child like a flower or like an abstract botanical shot and do the nape of the neck or the little curve of the knee, things like that.

Audri Lanford: I love the body parts idea.

Vik Orenstein: Photographing children is fun, especially with babies. You can get those little jagged toenails that they always have, and bellybuttons, and all that.

Audri Lanford: We had a baby photographer a couple of weeks ago, and she looked at body parts as puzzle pieces. That was one of her favorite things to do too, to photograph the bellybutton, particularly toes like you mention.

Vik Orenstein: Yes, the toes are so perfect. I didn't realize that until I had my own daughter.

Before that, I always thought I wanted to shoot one, two, and three year olds because they move around a lot and I just thought they were the most interesting, but when I had my daughter and I realized that I could spend 45 minutes staring at her when she's asleep, I thought, "Well, I going to get pictures of those parts."

Audri Lanford: Last week, I was up visiting my mother in New York. When I was about two or two and a half, she had created a book. She had hired what turned out to be a very well known photographer -- not at the time because this was before she got really famous. Her name is Ilsa Bing.

She spent part of the day with me doing what you do. I got to see the results of that. I hadn't really looked at it probably in 10 or 15 years.

She did so much of what you're talking about and she spent a lot of time with me doing activities. She'd give me an apple. There was a picture of before with me holding out my arm, then with me eating the apple, and then she took it away and I was crying. It was just amazing to look at these pictures.

I'd just like to suggest to our listeners that in addition to taking these photographs yourself, which is of course what this podcast is about, I really do so highly recommend that you hire Vik or somebody like Vik to come in and take pictures of your kids at some point.

Those pictures are just priceless. It's incredible to look at them. I can't imagine for you how everyday this is what you do. It must be incredibly fun.

Vik Orenstein: I feel very, very lucky to be photographing children. I have a lot of envious friends who are in the midlife stage where they're questioning their career choice and I'm just gloating.

To Sum Up

Sometimes it's not the obvious shots that make the biggest impression. Sure, the shots where the kids are looking at the camera and smiling are great. But it's the candid shots and the abstract shots of the body that seem to make the biggest impression. These are the things you shouldn't forget when photographing children.