How to get your Kids to Smile for Pictures- Bend Oregon Family Photographer

Does your kid look like they're out of an "awkward family pictures" series when you ask them to smile? Just google this phrase and enjoy if you've never done that google search. Or do they smile like they just smelled something bad? Working with kids to smile genuinely can be super challenging, but you know who are the hardest to make smile? YOUR OWN DANG KIDS. My kids are not perfect "smilers" because their mom is a photographer. I have dozens of pictures where my daughter is smiling but not looking at the camera or looking like she's straining during a picture or the emoji with the teeth straight across. No one is immune to the lame smiles kids give their parents. One day they'll make for awesome pictures in the wedding album or #throwbackthursday picts. But have no fear, I'm here to give you 5 solid tips on how to get your kids (best for ages 2-10) to smile like you want them to with those sweet smiles you see except when you pull your phone out.

As a family photographer, I have worked with dozens and dozens of families and found what works to get kids to smile and look at a camera happily. My style isn't always to make a kid stair into my lens and show me their teeth for minutes, so these tips also give good candid shots that I think are equally as cute because they show more of the reality of your life as a mom!

5 Tips for Helping your Kids Smile for Pictures

1) Don't make them say "cheese"....instead say cookies! This catches kids off guard because they know the "cheese" drill and who doesn't love cookies. Plus, the "eeeee" sound at the end of cookies makes kids mouths form into a genuine smile shape.

2) Have them actually move their body, this can be dancing, spinning in a circle, running towards you. All you have to do is say, "do ________, but just be sure to smile while you do it!" This feels way more natural for a kid to do something they would already want to be doing, and will give get you a natural candid smile much easier.

3) Let them make a few silly faces first, have you every asked for one "nice smiling picture" (so we can get this over with) and then someone makes a silly face? If a mom had a dollar for every time that's happened I think we'd have college tuition saved for our kids by now. You know what, next time, ask them to make the silly face first and then react like they're so scary, they need to stop or you're gonna run away or so silly, they look like like one of their favorite TV characters after they've tooted or they're killing you with that kind of funniness and 90% will give you a good smile afterwards.

4) Ask them to tell you a joke, or have a few jokes up your sleeve. If you need somewhere to start just look up dad jokes on google. We've done this over the dinner table and laughed way too hard. Our current favorites are anything revolving around potty humor, lol. If that doesn't describe this journey on motherhood, I don't know what does. Like, "How do you make a tissue dance? Put a little boogy in it", or "Why did Tigger have to go home and clean up? Because he was playing with Pooh all day." To each their own, but I've never told these and had kids not laugh. Also, you can totally throw out to a kid, what's your favorite ice cream? And before they can respond assume it's broccoli flavor or something weird. Or "why are you smiling like that? are you holding in a fart?" Clearly, these types of conversations just roll off the tongue at our house. But hey, kids think these kinds of things are funny.

5) Lastly, play a game. A few easy ones are Simon Says (Simon says smile SOOOOOO big), how high you can jump, peek a boo, or others like give me your best belly laugh, and laugh with them, or "don't you dare smile", react like you don't want them to smile and they'll be confused and then start laughing and then you can react bigger because they are smiling.

I obviously can't guarantee to 100% smiling from your kids from here on out, but I hope these help in getting better pictures of your kids whether its on a professional camera or your iPhone!