Photographing the Terrible Twos

I recently did a maternity photo shoot for a friend and discovered (for the second time) how difficult it is to get a two year old to cooperate for pictures. Here are a few things that I learned that helped make the whole process run a little more smoothly.

1. Prioritize.

They are over posing for pictures pretty quickly. If there are any cute ideas that you were really wanting to try, get them out of the way immediately or they probably won’t happen.

2. Aperture.

See this picture ^^^ ? It looks like the little guy is happy and laughing, but he’s actually screaming… and this was only about 10 minutes into the shoot. Oh, boy. Use aperture and focus to hide that grumpy face.

3. Improvise!

Try taking pictures while they’re doing something they enjoy. You might end up with a little boy riding around on a 4-wheeler in 90% of the pictures, but at least he’ll be smiling.

4. Wardrobe!

One of the benefits to photographing a two year old, is that they are almost always adorable, even just walking across the yard. You can take plenty of cute candid shots that look great. If that two year old is wearing a shirt that says something like, “Big Brother.” Bam. That makes it part of a pregnancy shoot.

5. Patience.

Take breaks and alternate between poses with the whole family and ones that just have the parents or mom. This way, the youngin’ can run around a little bit.

So, that’s what I learned last weekend. It was an adventure. If you want to see the rest of the photos, check out my Facebook page!

Kitten Crazy Level: Assassin

Kitten always chooses the most inconvenient times to be ridiculously cute. For example, when I’m supposed to be studying for a Spanish exam… He makes this face…

then he attacks a helpless blanket…

That doesn’t satisfy his thirst for action, so he sneaks up on my unsuspecting elephant…

First came the exploratory pat..

Then the full on attack..

A good indicator of his current level of crazy is the claws. He may have sweet round “Puss in Boots” eyes, but he also has a Mufasa-like grip on the couch..

Cross-Eyed Monster

What is it about cats that makes it necessary for them to crawl into every open door, cabinet, crevice or in this case, carpet roll?

We also have a Husky who sheds on EVERYTHING. We were in the process of de-hairing our floors when we threw all the rugs outside. When we went back to get them all, this is what we found.

Pretty cute, huh? I was able to get a few quick pictures before the dog came over and sniffed his butt, which caused a minor heart attack on the cat’s part. They actually get along pretty well. By “pretty well” I mean they try to each pretend the other doesn’t exist. That’s good enough for me!

Kitten is the cats name (I’m not good with the whole naming thing, obviously. Hopefully, I improve before I have kids. I have a feeling naming all of my children “Baby Human” would be frowned upon) and the dogs name is Keen. It’s a good thing he was already named when we got him. If not, I’m afraid he would have been “Puppy” or “Little Husky Puppy” if I were feeling fancy. I guess it’s only fair to put a picture of “Little Husky Puppy” on here too…