If you follow my Instagram feed (and if you don’t here’s the link :)) you probably already know: a) I’m having a pretty sweet summer and b) I’ve been taking a lot of photos of my kids. With more than FOUR weeks of summer vacation still ahead of us, I figured it’s a perfect time to share some thoughts behind my photography lately. And because summer is a time to break all the rules (in parenting anyway :), I bring you my Top 5 DON’Ts of summer family photos:
1) DON’T pick their clothes
Before we head out on our adventures for the day, I’m often tempted to stop, take a look at what my kids are wearing and change them into something clean, logo free and generally photogenic. I’ve been stopping myself lately. My kids mismatched, slightly crazy and often repeated outfit choices tell the story of who they are right now – and down the road I’ll want to remember them like this. Exhibit A: this Princess Sophia t-shirt my older daughter is obsessed with (and I may need to burn after Labour Day ;): 
2) DON’T clean them up This sort of goes along with my previous point. Messy kids are having fun. Clean kids are annoyed that you just wiped their faces. I’ll take dirty smiles over clean death stares any day. 
3) DON’T make them stop Lately my littlest has put her hand over her face every time I ask her to look at the camera (I’m devastated and hoping it’s a phase) – so I’ve been focusing more on catching them in action. They never stop moving anyway, so I might as well work with the cards I’ve been dealt. I also tell myself I’m in training for my future career as a sports photographer. 
4) DON’T worry about your gear A piece of advice I’m totally borrowing here: “the best camera is the one you have with you.” I love my DSLR, but I don’t have it in me to carry it everywhere. A phone pic is still a great memory. Especially when you can edit them for free with some many different apps. My favourite is Snapseed – if you don’t have it, download it now. It’s a game changer. 
5) DON’T SHOOT THEM IN THE FACE! Good advice for photography and life really. Faces are cute and all – but I’ve been trying to look for other details (usually limbs) that tell a better story, usually a messy one. 
So that’s it from me – now I’d love to hear from you. What rules are you breaking this summer? I want to try them out!
PS: Have you been noticing a snack them through this post? My kids are clearly eating too much ice cream, but yeah, it’s the summer. 😉
