Stop Doing This One Thing Right Now!

When you’re taking pictures of your children, where are you? Are you standing above them? Are all of your snapshots from your perspective?

Imagine taking a photograph of your child’s first steps from your point of view. Yes, you’ve capture the moment, but how much more powerful and impactful would it be to capture it from their perspective? To see the joy in their eyes and the smile on their lips. Getting on their level to snap the picture will draw the viewer in and allow them to connect better with the image.

Over the weekend, I took my own advice! My daughter was playing in the backyard and I wanted to snap some pictures of her. I grabbed my camera from inside and sat on the ground while she did her thing. I would take a few pictures and then put the camera down. Take a few more and then put it down again. She doesn’t like when I have a camera in her face all the time. She’d rather me play with her so I made sure I was doing both. Shooting from this perspective makes it feel like you’re part of the action. Like you’re right there playing with her.

For these last few images, I laid on the grass to capture the action from the same angle that she was at. I love that it includes some of the foreground to add depth and I love the motion in the images too. If I were standing up taking pictures, these images would not have the same impact.