Photographing Toddlers

Denver Newborn Photographer, Boulder Newborn Photographer, Boulder Maternity Photographer, Denver Newborn Photographer

Prepare yourselves!

It often makes me smile, I enjoy the privilege of meeting these beautiful, expectant parent radiant souls or a husband and wife that have just welcomed a sweet bundle of joy, still getting to know their new little nugget. I LOVE being a maternity and newborn photographer in Denver. This city, these people, the mountain views. It all makes my heart happy to be a photographer in our city.

After meeting these lovely crews, we’ve spent an entire year photographing the sweetest sessions with smiles and total compliance. I send these lovely families back into the world with their soon to be toddler at the end of baby’s first year sessions. They come back to see me for fall family photos or even round II with a quick turnaround pregnancy. And WHOA the session is so different once these nuggets can walk (run lol), talk, have asserted opinions. Welcome to life with a toddler! Photo sessions with the more grown littles are SO different from baby’s first year.

I’ve photographed a toddler or two over the decade: shooting little ones may create anxiety for the whole family - you feel responsible for making sure they don’t act “crazy” and run all over the place even though we all know they will. The age eighteen months (really once we find our independence thru walking) to three years old timeframe in human development in is an interesting one! :)

While bribery does work at times, it facilitates the idea that whatever is going on right now (photos with Jessica!) is terrible and awful and if you just force a smile for one last photo, it will all be better because you’ll get xxx. I find that bribery is best used an end of session last resort. Play. Do photogenic things instead of tell your irrational toddler to stand still and smile. Be playful and fun, tell them things to make them laugh, embrace their defiance and don’t take the session (or yourself!) too seriously. Chase them, laugh with them, giggle with them, even if you want to murder them. They run off, you chase them smiling and giggling, we all have a good time getting candid photos of little people doing little people things.