Photographing Children-Part One: Bribery
ByPhotographing children can be rewarding, endearing, or awful! In this five part series, I will share my years of experience that probably could earn me a psychology degree. I have many strategies and tips that I will share with you in the next few weeks as to what I have found to be most effective.
One book that I would recommend is “The Strong Willed Child” by Dr. James Dobson. I also love all books by Kevin Lehman. His “Have a New Kid by Friday” is excellent. And I don’t even have children of my own! But I can so understand and relate to them. I have shared these books with my customers as well.
Photographing Children – Part One: Bribery
Bribery is not helpful so I do not recommend it. This is true of children and dogs! Having a treat or a snack to bribe either a child or a dog generally does not work. Oh, it might get you by or fool you into thinking you won but you truly will get better results without the treat. You need patience and a better plan.
Bribing a child is common with many parents who do not know what else to do (or maybe their parents did it to them). “If you are good, we will go to McDonald’s after we are done.” This might get the child to pretend to cooperate but it does nothing for actually changing the mood and temperament of the child. You might get one sort of faked and forced smile that way.
Telling a child to be good is not helpful. Does a child really understand the definition of what being good is? That seems like a lot of pressure to me. Adults are good at putting pressure on others.
Your job as the photographer is to be the liaison between the nervous parent and the unsure child. All a parent wants is for everything to go smoothly and be embarrassed, and of course have great images of their children.
A story I use to put parents at ease is an example of me taking my dog to the vet for a nail trim. How embarrassed I was that it took three techs to do something that should be quite easy. I think we even put a muzzle on my perfect little doggy. They must have thought I was a bad pet owner if this was how it had to be done. That is when I recognized that this might be how parents feel when their little Jimmy is not behaving like the little angel they want him to be.
So think of your own personal experiences you can use to relate to your clients. Put them at ease by showing them you understand and this is not unusual or a problem for you. Maybe a session with a less than perfect kid is more fun and challenging!
So how do you help these parents? Talk to them ahead of time. If you wait until you are in the camera room to ask them not to bribe their child it may not go over so good. They may feel like they are making a mistake and being corrected. If you can educate them prior to the session, then you are not picking on just them. You tell them that you talk about this with everyone, just in case it comes up!
Next week, we will talk about how to get a good expression without bribery!
About Barb
Barb Gordon, of www.BarbGordonPhotoCoach.com, is a Master Photographer, Photographic Craftsman, and Certified Professional Photographer with the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) to which she has belonged since 1984. She is a nationally published and award winning photographer, entrepreneur, speaker, and author including being published in the prestigious PPA Loan Collection 2006, PPA Showcase 2003, twice named Iowa’s Top Ten Photographer of the Year, 2010 Iowa’s Master Photographer of the Year, and 2010 PPA’s Photographer of the Year, Silver Level.
