Capturing Your Little One on Camera

This past December I tried to capture my daughter Nadia on camera to create our holiday greeting card.  After numerous tries to get her to sit still, I gave up. I finally came to the conclusion that I had to work with what I had and ended up with a montage of photos  with “Nadia-in-motion.”

I should have spoken to Heather Forbes beforehand. She is a top children’s photographer whose work has been featured in well known publications such as Time Out and Cookie ( and she looks like a model to boot!).  She gave me the inside scoop on how to capture your child’s personality and spontaneity on camera.

Heather Forbes

TOP 10 TIPS for Great Kiddie Pictures

1. Turn Off your flash.  Use natural light.  Go outside or by a big window.

2. Quantity, quantity, quantity: take advantage of digital technology and keep snapping

3. Interaction: use songs, puppets, squeaky toys, bubbles, silly faces…

4. Get multiple subjects (parents, grandparents, siblings, etc) at the same eye level

5. A comfortable baby is a happy baby: recently napped, fed and changed is ideal

6. Get close.  Shoot low and wide

7. Use proportion/environment to your advantage for interesting shots…

8. Focus on toes, eyelashes and lips

9. Capture the relationship/interaction between parent and child

10. It’s not all about smiles: interesting expressions make memorable photos: go for that yawn, or scream or smirk!

Heather is after the happy, silly, sassy, grumpy, content, irreverent, innocent and honest mood of your baby. Her love for photography developed shooting surfers and nature in California and South Africa. Now her camera focuses on babies, including her children Cameron and Jasmine. Heather holds degrees in Advertising and Journalism and splits her time between her two favorite cities, San Francisco and New York. Check out Heather’s website at www.heatherforbes.com.