Our cover photographer Jennifer Zdon of Twirl Photography shares with us her top tips to taking the perfect Spring photo!

 
Spring is such a wonderful time to go out and take family pictures. The weather is nice, everything is in bloom, and between Audubon Park and City Park there are countless corners with gorgeous Oak trees waiting for a child to climb on them. If you are heading out to the park or just your backyard, here are a few tips for how to turn your snapshots into images you’ll cherish forever.
 
1) Try a different angle.  Get down low, stand on a chair, or try being eye level with your child before you press the shutter.
 
2) Make your child laugh. Tickling, jokes, making funny faces, do whatever you have to do to make your child smile naturally.
 
3) Let you child move around. The hardest part is getting a good picture of your child sitting still when they don’t want to. Find a safe place for your child to jump, skip, run and roll. Then try to keep up with your camera in hand.
 
4) Let your child get a little dirty. Beautiful spring dresses, fancy shoes and bows are wonderful for photos but children usually catch on that they are wearing something you don’t want them to mess up. Let that go and your child will be much more relaxed. Sometimes it’s better not to have every hair in place.
 
5) Take lots of photos. With digital you can take as many images as you want. Throw away the ones that don’t work. You might surprise yourself with what you get when you take 50 pictures of your child running.
 
6)  Find good light. This is of course the most important one. Window light, shade and beautiful early morning or late afternoon sunlight is the best for gorgeous pictures!
 
It hurts me to share a bad picture, but even I as a seasoned photographer have to fess up that, yes, I do take them. And learn from them. The image on the left is of my uninterested daughter under bad lighting. I moved her outside, changed my perspective and acted very silly until I had a genuine reaction and laugh. It made the world of difference.
 
For more inspiration and ideas visit twirlphotography.com/blog.