What if my Toddler Won’t Cooperate at the Photo Shoot?

It can be a little bit nerve wracking for you as a parent bringing your toddler to a  photoshoot. Especially if it’s with your new newborn as well. You have hopes and dreams for the beautiful images you would like, but you know your little two year old is a live wire and into everything.

The thing about two or so year olds is they have just discovered their own mind, and they like to be in charge. They have also just developed a wariness to strangers, and we at the studio are strangers to them! 

The first step to being successful with these rather tricky hurdles, is to be aware of them. You can take some comfort in the fact that we have had lots of practice in dealing with little thunderbolts now, and we have dozens of tricks and techniques up our sleeves.

Gaining Your Child’s Trust

The first thing we’ll need to do is to help them feel safe and comfortable with their photographer. It may take a little while,  and you can help this process. They take their cues from you so be as calm and relaxed as you can and show them that there is nothing to be concerned about. If your child is particularly nervous, sometimes we find actually just pausing the photoshoot and playing together for a short while can help. 

Once we have gained your child’s trust we will start to ask them to do little things for us. Some ‘tasks’ will work and produce the images we are planning, some won’t. 

From a parent’s perspective, the photoshoot may seem like total chaos. But keep your calm, and don’t worry if a task we give, doesn’t get the response we are hoping for. We will always have another idea to try. 

As a parent you’ll already know what a fantastic tool bribery can be for this age bracket. Something like white chocolate buttons, that won’t discolour your child’s mouth or mark their clothing is perfect. We do need to be very measured with bribery though. Try not to let them know you have the treats in advance. If possible save the bribes until later in the shoot otherwise we could run out of chocolate buttons!

However chaotic the shoot appears at the time, we promise that the pictures won’t show it. When you come back to view your portraits from a toddler shoot, you’ll be amazed at how many portraits we have for you.