Swingin' and Readin'

A fellow blogger and photo enthusiast volunteered her kids to model for my Kids and Teens Project this week. We did a few photos in her backyard and then headed out to their subdivision's private park for a few more. I love Alpharetta! There's the greenway, beautiful parks, amazing trees, and wonderful hidden treasures like private community parks and ponds. Discovering these "secret gardens" is one of the highlights of being a photographer.

Big sister loves the monkey bars. She uses a mixture of sand and clay (fifth photo) to help her hands grip the bars more easily. And quite a grip she has! She hung on those monkey bars while mom put the two twin girls in a row. Then, they all held long enough for me to get several pictures of the siblings. I love how big brother is framed by the playground equipment.

Big brother prefers reading. He can read a thick book like Inkspell in two days. We got to talking books before we went to the park and found out we have a common interest in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I had no idea there were three more sequels to The Lightning Thief, and my reader dashed upstairs to get me the second book to borrow! I'm halfway through it already.

Lately I've been working on my posing techniques. It's something I think most parents want: a nice posed picture of all the kids looking and smiling at the camera. But it's not so easy to achieve. Mom and I posed the kids and even persuaded them to take off their shoes for the photo. Then, I told the two oldest to just look and smile for the camera while I worked on getting the two youngest to smile. (Older kids are great this way. They will usually go along with a plan, as long as they know the purpose.) Well, it turned out pretty well! I had the two youngest close their eyes and then on "3," look and smile at the camera. Snap, snap, snap! And we have all four of them looking and smiling. Great job, kids!

Do you have school-age kids who would like to model for me? You will get wonderful candid photos of your kids doing what they like best, and your kids will get some fun experience modeling. Please contact us to sign up for my Kids and Teens Photo Project which I've extended until the end of August.