Childrens portrature

I was shooting a rather energetic young lady the other day, and it really got me to thinking about the difference between shooting kids and adults. With adults, the first pose or two are generally what I like to consider the warm-up poses. Adults tend to be more relaxed and take better portraits after being in front of the camera for a few minutes. Kids however can go a different path, being great right off the bat, and then tiring after a couple of poses, and becoming cranky and or restless. This is not always the case, some children need some time to get comfortable with you first, but the warm up period seems to be less. The key to children is to get down to their level, and be quick! They will hit an expression and then lose it in 1/10 of a second. Have your light cover a large enough area to be effective through a range of motion as well. They rarely sit still for long. And always have an interesting toy or object of some sort to get the childs attention. Here are a few of the images I did with little Tallia.