Worried your sweet, shy child won’t warm up for family photos?

Put your mind at ease. As a San Diego and Carlsbad family photographer with over a decade of experience, I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve to help your little one feel comfortable.

In my many years as a Carlsbad family photographer, I’ve worked with children with a wide range of comfort levels and personalities. Most photographers (myself included) want to capture uninhibited, authentic joy and happiness in our family photo sessions, especially when it comes to our smallest clients. A lot of parents of shy children worry their child won’t warm up for photos and use their usual fall-back of  the dreaded, “say cheese!” Our parents used to say it to us and now we need to break the cycle!

Over time and through lots of trial and error, I’ve developed some good strategies for getting real, happy emotions out of shy children. I’m going to share my tips and advice for photographing shy kids because we all love authentic smiles and those are the photos you are going to treasure for years to come!

1. I Will Get To Know Your Family

After you book your family photography session, I send out a pre-session questionnaire to every client when they book a session with me. A variety of questions are touched on. I ask about the personalities and interests of each family member and what little thing they love about each unique child. For example, some moms tell me that their kids are quieter and serious but they want to capture how sweetly the child snuggles up to them in new surroundings. That might mean we won’t get a huge belly laugh, but I never count it out! My first goal is to capture that special moment with mom. Then we work from there. If I know ahead of time we will be working with some shyness, referring to the pre-session questionnaire is a great resource.

2. What Are Your Child’s Interests

When I arrive at a session knowing I’ll be photographing shy kids, I give the children plenty of space. I never try to take a child out of their parents’ arms. We might start the session where I give prompts to snuggle your child and capture some of those tender moments. This will also give them time to get used to the idea that we are taking pictures and shows them that family photos aren’t a scary process.