Worried your kids won’t cooperate on the day? Tips to help your family photos run smoothly

Kids like to have meltdowns at the worst times, don't they? And try asking a 3yo to do anything you want them to do!

Don’t stress if your child isn’t behaving the way you expected. Trust the process and let things unfold naturally. I totally get it though, sometimes the wheels fall off and it can get tricky, so I’ve covered some great ways to help your family session go smoothly.

kids can feel your stress

Leading up to your session and on the day of, try not to stress about how your session might go. Kids can feel it, and they will feed off your anxiety.

Try not to put any pressure on your kids before the shoot, and avoid telling them they need to perform or behave a certain way. And tell yourself the same thing too! Honestly, we’ve totally got this. It's normal to feel a little anxious before your photoshoot, but rest assured my goal is for you to enjoy the process and make your session fun for the whole family.

introduce me as your friend

In the weeks and days leading up to your photo session, get your kids excited about meeting your new friend, who has a really special camera, and that I'm going to be photographing you while we hang out and play. If it helps, buy them a toy camera so they can practice taking photos of you. On the day, there will be opportunity for kids to ‘help’ me take photos.

let kids be kids

Your session day is meant to be about making beautiful memories with your littles and having gorgeous photographs to remember the day. So, during your session, remember to keep a smile on your face and carry on, even if your kids aren't having it and you're fuming on the inside. I know how crazy that sounds but trust me – I’ve got this. No matter what happens, don't let your child's melt down get you down too.

Your session isn't the best time to be disciplining your child. Instead, smile through and try to make your child laugh and forget what they're mad about.

snacks and bribes

Bribes can seem like a good idea at the time, but go south very quickly. So I like to take different approaches depending if you’re doing a longer family session or short mini session.

Normally I wouldn’t suggest bribing kids during a photoshoot because they can never wait until the end of a full session to receive their reward, which usually means a meltdown mid-way through the session… not ideal… But since mini sessions are short, they only have to do a few ‘tricks’ for us and wait a few minutes before it’s all over and they can enjoy their reward. My girl will do anything for a smartie (yep, just a single smartie), gummy bears and tiny teddies are another idea, but you can bring along whatever works for your kids, just try to avoid messy/drippy things and dummies if possible.

For longer sessions, avoid bribing your kids with promises of something you will give them after the session. I’ve found this approach works for a short while, but then kids become focused on their reward and become even less cooperative. But snacks and water for longer sessions is a must if we want to avoid the HANGRY monster!

favourite songs and toys

Have they got favourite songs they like to sing or dance too? If you give me a heads up I can have the music queued or my singing voice ready (lol) to help keep them engaged. I love dancing so definitely let’s do that if they’re into it!

Sometimes wagging a favourite toy about is a great way to get their attention. But keep in mind for this one they may end up holding the toys so it could be in your photos, in which case I’d suggest ‘photo friendly’ toys like soft toys and rattles etc.

happy play

Think about all the things you do each day when you’re playing with them that you know almost always gets them going, then have that list ready to put in use throughout your session. If your kids are having a particularly bad day, we’ll jump from idea to idea to engage with them and hopefully lift their spirits.

lastly, prioritise what’s important

This is especially important for mini sessions, not as big of a deal for family sessions where we have more time. For minis, I always start photographing the family together, then mum and kids, then dad and kids etc, and keep breaking down the group until we end with individual photos. Doing it this way means less shuffling kids around, which usually results in a smoother session and more photos. But if the most important thing to you is getting a nice photo of the kids together, then we can plan our session around that and only move on to the other stuff when we’ve nailed that shot for you.

Phew! That was a lot, but hopefully you’ll find these tips useful for your next family session.

If you’re ready to book your next photoshoot, pop over to my contact page and drop me a line, view my portfolio or find out more about my prices and packages. I’d love to work with you!

The above family beach photography session was photographed in Point Lonsdale, a coastal town in the Bellarine Peninsula, by Ocean Grove photographer Joanne Curtis, who specialises in newborn and family photography.

Joanne services Ocean Grove, the Bellarine, Geelong, the Surf Coast and Melbourne.