Getting Children to Smile for Photo

Video Transcript

"Hi, I am Ed Cody and on behalf of ExpertVillage.com, I am going to talk to you a little bit about expressions. Expressions, what does that mean? Well it can be that cute look where your child is just kind of pursing their lips in or blowing kisses at you, rolling their eyes up and down, it all depends on what your thought on how your child looks good is to you. From a professional standpoint an expression simply means a nice, pleasing smile and that is what we are trying to get. We normally do not get it from that old test up word of “Cheese” and just spreads the mouth out; it is over worked and overused. But when you pick up that camera your child is going to start trying to give you as what he knows as his picture smile. What you are trying to get is a more natural and pleasing expression and that simply comes from talking to your child, have a little interaction with them. And the other key to this is anticipation, it is not the word that you are saying to your child, it is not the actions that you are doing to try to get them to smile, it is their interaction and their anticipation in what you are trying to do with them. When you are trying to maybe tickle them, a lot of parents will say “Oh I am going to tickle, tickle, tickle”. Well that will work but it is not actually the action of going over there and tickling your child, it is that thought process that your child is having about “Oh here comes mom and she is going to tickle me” and that smile will just light up all over their face. A lot of times we will do a little sneezing technique, “Oh I have got to sneeze”. Well it is not the sneeze, it is that thought again that you are putting into your child’s mind, it is interaction with you child and having them anticipate that you are doing something funny and something different. And when you see that expression coming to their face, you will know it and you will be ready to capture it when it is there for you. "