These sweet cheeks gave me a run for my money. He wasn't in a BAD mood,
but he certainly didn't come to party. I think we all worked up a sweat!
Often, even if a one year old is all smiles at the beginning of their session, I've learned that the easy cheeses are pretty short-lived. Regardless of where we are, they are super curious about their surroundings and I'm going to have to work to get their attention let alone any grins.
Here are some of the things I come prepared to do for a one year old portrait session:
1) Give them a few minutes to warm up to me without the big, black camera glued to my face before attempting to take pictures. I go for funny Aunt Tammy and carefully gauge their comfort level. From about age 1-3, there's nothing worse than scaring my little subject into hiding his head in Mommy's shoulder, so I try not to overdo the sillies right from the start. That said, with a mini session like this one, I can't plan on too much warm up time.
2) Use the parent(s) as props. Usually parents have no plans to be in their one year old's pictures, but I always recommend that you come prepared because a good chunk of the time, the best pictures I get are with the toddlers being held. I can get some pretty sweet pictures by carefully positioning you just out of the frame, but I also love to freeze time while you are getting your snuggles.
3) Bring a snack or treat. One year olds aren't bribable, yet, but having a simple and non-messy treat can provide just the distraction we need to get his attention off of the things we don't want in your pictures as well as helping with fussiness. Cheeri os are a great for this. Avoid chocolate or anything that will discolor the mouth or drip onto clothes. We also won't want a lollipop stick hanging out of his mouth nor anything that will take a while to finish.
4) One person at a time. I love when I'm able to snap a picture with those beautiful eyes looking directly at my camera. For that reason, at least for part of your session, I'll ask that you let me try for the smiles without any other noises. It's really tempting for everyone to start jumping around while calling your little one's name, but that can be very overwhelming. If you are going to help, just have one person at a time working for those smiles and try to get down low and as close to me as possible (unless you are holding him, I'm probably going to spend 95% of the session crouched down on the ground).
5) Sing his favorite songs and play his favorite games. A lot of times, just hearing me sing that favorite nursery rhyme causes some intrigue. Fortunately, at this age, they haven't learned how to give fake smiles, but we are still going to have the most luck getting those big grins if we're focused on the things he loves instead of determined to get that perfectly posed picture.
6) Lastly, patience is key. Babies pick up on our moods and if we start getting frustrated, so will he. I try my best not to schedule anything immediately after a mini session so that we can give baby a rest and try again if needed. I'm much more interested in getting great pictures for you than watching the time. I encourage clients to choose between the mini and full hour sessions based on how many pictures they hope to walk away with rather than worrying about having enough time.
I've had the privilege of capturing Gage since last Summer's maternity pictures followed by his newborn family session, portraits at 7 months and I finally got to document his first birthday!
Oh! And just for fun, here are a couple sweet pictures of Gage's big sister, Hannah, that I snapped during his one year session!
