5 Tips to Great Kids Photos for the Holidays

Great kids photos are not easy! Taking great holiday photos of our kids while cooking, wrapping gifts and entertaining friends and family may seem overwhelming but with these 5 tips you won't give in to the chaos and not take out your camera. Everyone else can use their camera phones but I beg you not to rely on the camera phone when taking photos of your family and sharing them (either via internet or prints) has never been easier and more fun.

Let's start with the camera you have and some easy tips on how to improve your photos now.

GREAT HOLIDAY PHOTOS OF YOUR FAMILY

• Tip 1 - capture a moment, no posing!

The holidays are a great time to take photos in your own home. You can do this in front of your Christmas tree, at the dinner table or for that matter on the couch! These are places where your family are interacting with each other, building memories and laying the foundation for fabulous photos - so sneak in - tell them to ignore you (for now) and start shooting. Look about what's behind them, do you want it in your photo? No? then zoom in and get close and focus on the eyes. If you would like to include the background then take a step back, look at the picture you are going to take - wait for that special moment...you'll feel it...and take your photo.

How to Take Great Photos of your Kids

Photos of your children are priceless. Halloween photos of your kids dressed up in their costume are forever remembered and enjoyed! How to take great photos of your kids as they grow up is as easy as keeping your camera readily available. Be it an iPhone or polaroid camera (yes - they do still exist and the Impossible Project has film!) or digital camera it's about getting the picture. Part of what makes a great a photo of your child is getting in close and really seeing their expression - as seen above. That close up shot is only one shot of a set that tells the story of Bodie's Halloween. We also put him in front of the fireplace and made sure to get a full photo of his bee costume, I used my Canon 5D and my 430 flash. The light is a bit hard and it's not the best photo of the bunch but we wanted to get out and get trick or treating so I had only a couple of minutes! In the end, my favorite photo was taken by an iPhone and was not posed at all. Bodie was running through the house and we caught him in our den. I added the photo to adobe lightroom and added some filters and tada - a cute photo of a Bee! I will end up cropping it (to get rid of the misc. clutter in the backround) and using it on my Holiday 2012 Calendar for our family.

Taking great photos of your kids doesn't need to be difficult - it's all about capturing the memory.