How I Get My Kids To Smile In Photos

People ask me how I get my kids to smile in photos.

"They always seem happy!" I'm told and I answer, "Oh, that's because I gave them $5 to smile."

I'm kidding.

If I did that, I'd be broke. I take a ton of photos.

When my kids were small, I could make farting noises, and that would do it.

Or I'd run into the side of the house, which hurt, but apparently my pain made them giggle.

But as they got older, it became tricky. Suddenly the fart noises were "lame" and when I ran into the house I was asked if I needed medication.

So what do I do now?

Well, I try to think back to a meme that made them giggle. Or a video. Or a TV show. For example, my son loves The Office, so I made a bunch of "that's what she said" jokes.

My daughter can be trickier. Her birthday is this week, and I wanted to get some photos as I did with my son.

She went, "Maybe I just won't open my eyes," and I answered, "Fine," and clicked away.

You can't give up easily with tweens and teens. You just can't. You have to go with it. Block off at least a half hour.

To get her to laugh, I was speaking to the neighbor's dog, who was barking on the other side of the fence.

"No Fluffy, you can't be in the photos," I said, and Natalie found this hilarious.

"I don't think his name is Fluffy!" she giggled.

Yes, she still stubbornly had her eyes shut, but you know, the photo invokes her joy.

You never know what will make tweens laugh.

"I'm still keeping my eyes shut," she told me.

"Amazing, my eyes are shut too," and then she opened HERS to check.

Surprise!


Then she went, "I'm going to be silly," and I said I'd still take her photo.

I let her get the silliness out of her system, because eventually she will take photos for me because she knows I won't give up. I've had a camera in her face since I pushed her out of me.

She might have thought my face WAS a camera for the first half of her life.

And when they begin to cooperate, they might go back to being a goofball, but those photos are memories too. So take them.

I find the less berating I do, the more willing they are to go back to regular photos.

Look, there's a reason why she's wearing a sweatshirt that says Sassy Since Birth. (It's from Forever 21 if you have a sassy girl too.)

So just a reminder: when photographing older kids, have patience. Be silly. Let them be silly.

And you will get some good shots.