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Be Ready

Things Happen Quickly With Kids, Stay Alert...

Be Ready - Always have your finger on the shutter button, and try to have the camera settings set correctly. Children are one of the most spontaneous and unpredictable subjects you can photograph, you NEVER know what they will do next

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Some of the things they do, can be a little naughty and will only happen once, so you need to be at the ready (with no shutter lag) to capture it. My tip is to look through the camera with one eye, and keep the other on the room as a whole, and try and predict when something will happen.

This photograph of James is a perfect example.

If you keep your finger lightly pressed on the shutter button, it will stay focussing on the subject as they run around the room. If your camera has the AI FOCUS setting, put it on that to help get sharp pictures more consistently. If your camera has multi focus points, use just the centre one.

This prevents the cameras auto focus from wildly focussing on the background. Again, if your camera has the ability, set the camera shutter to multi shoot, or continuous shooting. I normally take 3 or 4 at a time of each shot to:

1. Ensure at least ONE of the photographs is in focus
2. Ensure at least ONE of the photographs is framed and composed correctly
3. Ensure at least ONE of the photographs is framed, composed AND focussed correctly.

Follow the children wherever they go (within reason). You should become almost part of whatever game they are playing and try to record it. Obviously don't photograph everything they do. If you are using film, it will be a costly exercise, and if you are shooting digitally, great, but you will have a lot of work to do later on.

Also keep your eyes open, you never know when the biggest of all Rainbows may appear at the right time.

Go To Tip 10. The Formal Shots

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Tips on Child Photography - Be Ready