April 15, 2013

10 Tips on a Fun Photography Session for Kids( Review of Tomato Photo)

Dominique Parenting and Kids, Reviews, Thoughts Tomato Photography, tuesday thoughts, tuesday top 10

It isn’t easy taking family photographs being the photographer of the family. Many a times I have to forgo having myself in the picture in order to capture the expressions of the kids and R in the photo. Sometimes I really wish that we could have another person standing by so that we would be able to capture more family photos. It would be really great that we could have professionally taken photos of the family as it would certainly  be great mementos for the kids when they look back on their childhood later as adults.

Your could say that my wish came true when  we were offered a photo session with Tomato Photo. It has been a long time since we took photos as a family. I remember the last time we had a family photo session was 5 years ago back in Hong Kong.  I have been thinking of going for a family photo session since Tiger girl was born.  This was just nice!!

Here are some tips on the things that you can do during to make the photo taking session more comfortable for the kids.

 

1.Arrive early and load up the kids on food before the photo taking session starts.

We had arranged to have our photo taking session at Botanic Gardens in the evening so we went there around tea so that the kids could have a snack least they get grouchy due to hunger pangs.

 

2. Dress the kids in comfortable clothes

It would certainly look good in the photograph if the kids were wearing color coordinated clothes however if the material results in the kid feeling uncomfortable or they have to constantly tug at the collars or have their movement restricted it’s certainly a no-no!! I rather the child enjoy the session then to be constantly whining and grumbling about being uncomfortable.

3.Give lots of allowance for the child to prepare for the outing.

Having to rush to the photo session from swimming lesson or from a play date will result not only in grumpy kids but a flustered parent too. In the end everyone looks less then ideal as both the kids and parents are not in a good mood.

 

4.Let the grandparents and the grand kids take centre stage.
What better way to let both the young and old to bond with each other then to let them take more photographs together.

 

5.Encourage spontaneity within limits.

Mobility  declines with age so when choosing where and how to stand  you need to take note that the chosen pose is suitable for older folk and simple enough for the kids to take cue.

6.Let the kids have fun
Who says that all photos taken has to be poise and proper?  Kids are the happiest when they are allowed to do things which they love. As you can see the jumping is something which the boys really love doing.

 

7.Get a good family shot for the yearly Christmas Card/ Chinese New Year Card.

Nobody says that it is a must to take family photos only during festive seasons. We are doing ours up in advance this year. With this family shot we are all ready to send our our yearly Christmas greetings this 2013 to family and friends.

8.Capture fun moments of the kids

These are the moments which are priceless and certainly a highlight in their lives. They make good pictures to add into their wedding montage when they do decide to tie the knot in the future.

 

9.Take shots with each individual kid

It is very seldom that I do get my photo taken with each kid and having shots taken with each one of them will certainly give me some to put in their personal photo albums. It was great to have a professional photographer taking shots for me this time round.

10.Create a hard copy  photo book as a gift.

Nowadays all the photos that we take are in digital format. It is really seldom that we print out the photos that we take and compile it as a book. With this photo taking session we were given a 20 page 6″ by 6″ printed book and it was just prefect for the grandparents to take back to Hong Kong. Now they have something to look at and to share with the other relatives and I have the prefect present for them for Mother’s/Father’s Day 🙂

My thoughts on the photo taking session

Although Hart takes good but I feel that he could drastically improve on his customer service. It took multiple e-mails from me to confirm the timing for the the photo taking session to the delivery of the photos which all could have been avoided if the estimated duration of delivery and SOP was stated clearly upfront. .

Disclaimer: We were offered a photo taking session with a photo book by Tomato Photo. All opinions are 100% my own.