The holiday season is here and that means that more moms and dads are going to be pulling out their cameras to take pictures of the precious little ones.  I’m not a professional photographer but I do pretend to be one on the internet at times so I’m here to offer some of my tips and secrets to obtaining the perfect picture.

First off, it helps immensely if you take photos of your little ones on a regular basis.  If they are used to the camera, they will (hopefully) start to pose for you.  My girls frequently ask me to take pictures of them.  Anna was sitting on the piano bench playing the piano the other day saying, “Mommy, I’m playing the piano.  Take a picture.”  I love when children cooperate!

We have designated a wall without furniture against it in our family room as the photo spot.  When I ask my girls if I can take their picture, they will run over and line up.

Photo time has turned into a game and they do like to pose for ten seconds before running across the room.  I know that I have those ten seconds to take the picture so I play along with their game trying to delay them against the wall for as long as possible.  As I am taking their picture, I’ll tell them that I’m going to count to three and then I want them to yell, “Hello!”  By making it a game, they play along.

{Please note that the most difficult age to photograph mulitples is 12 to 24 months, in my opinion.  Sorry.}

Another piece of advice is to get down to the eye level of your kiddos.  Parents often shoot off pictures from their own standing height.

That’s a cute picture of Emily dressed as a princess ballerina but from my height and with the noisy room, the true cuteness is lost.  I am petite (5’4″) so imagine if this was taken by someone taller.

Here is the same picture again taken at Emily’s eye level with the background clutter cropped out.

Now she is the focus of the picture.

Another quick piece of advice is to ensure that you include the entire body in the photo. Limbs cut off at odd places look, well, just odd.  Example…

Happy clicking!

Do your multiples happily pose for you?  What tricks to do you employ?  Or do you just give up on having pictures of them together?

Sarah is the mother to two and a half year old identical triplet girls – Allie, Anna and Emily – who were born at 35 weeks and 6 days.  She works full time as a Tax Director for Big Financial Institution and enjoys sharpening her photography skills with her daughters’ help.  You can read more about her crazy life raising triplets at The Great Umbrella Heist.