Taking photos of your children is probably one of the easiest and hardest things to do. It’s easy to take photos, but it’s difficult to take good photos. At the time of writing this article, my kids are 6 and 4, two of the most beautiful girls in the world and they certainly know how to wrap Daddy around their finger. On occasion I like to combine my favorite hobby with my favorite girls and that has provided a big learning curve for me.

There are a couple of reasons why working with your own children is difficult:

1. Children don’t listen to instructions in the same way as an adult. They aren’t being difficult, they’re being children and accepting that is important.

2. Children have a very short attention span as you are probably aware. They can spend an hour playing with something obscure and 2 minutes playing with a toy that you spent a small fortune on.

3. You don’t have limited control over the background when taking photos. You can’t decide when and how your children will be cute. They do that on their own and it tends to be where they want, when they want and how they want.

4. Photos with children are often unplanned. I.e. they do something cute and you try to grab the camera as quickly as possible, hoping that the lens is appropriate.