You are looking at a kid that has never been told by me to say ‘Cheese’ (for the camera) from the day he was born. I always felt it was up to me to get the shots and he was not required to do anything but be himself. I played with him, smiled at him, was goofy. I got the smiles I wanted. Having photographed a lot of kids, I meet many ‘trained’ kids. Trained to give me forced and fake smiles. After he was born I was determined not require that of him. He is older than 3 in these photos. We may have saved him from the cheese face. He will now pose for me with no forcing on my part, gives me a great variety of looks, and loves to be the photographer using my camera phone.
I think the simplest way to save a child from the cheese face is to let him or her play. Let them jump, be silly, make goofy faces. Let them be kids.
March 6th, 2011 at 9:05 am
Good shots. He’s a natural in those photos!
March 6th, 2011 at 9:07 pm
I photographed Ben so often as a child that when he was old enough to know that value of a dollar I had to pay him to cooperate in a photoshoot. However, when he was young like your son it was all about playing, having silly fun and taking great photos! We never said “cheese” either!
Great work, as always.
March 29th, 2011 at 1:46 pm
Nice shots! He is awesome to photograph b/c of how natural & genuine he is in front of the camera! Good job with ‘laying off the cheese’! I will definitely keep that in mind when I have my little ones.