6 Ways to Get in More Photos With Your Kids — Without Taking Another Selfie

Take a quick scroll through your camera roll.

If you're like a lot of parents, there are probably hundreds — maybe thousands — of photos of your kids.

Eating breakfast. Sleeping in ridiculous positions. Wearing rain boots with pyjamas. Playing with the dog. Doing something hilarious that absolutely had to be documented.

But how many of those photos have you in them?

When my boys were little, I was usually the one taking the pictures. And now that they're teenagers, I know how quickly all those ordinary stages disappear.

The funny thing is, the photographs I want most aren't necessarily beautiful portraits of all of us looking at the camera.

I want to remember what it looked like when they climbed all over me. When we read together. When they sat on the kitchen counter while I made something to eat. When they still wanted to be carried.

You don't need to wait for a special occasion to make those photographs.

If you've been wondering how to take family photos yourself and actually be in them, here are six easy ways to get into more of your family's pictures — especially during those wonderfully chaotic toddler and preschool years.

1. Hand Someone Else Your Phone

This sounds ridiculously obvious, but it's probably the easiest place to start.

When you're at the playground with your partner, visiting Grandma, making pancakes on Sunday morning or sitting on the floor playing with your toddler, hand someone your phone.

And here's the important part:

Don't stop what you're doing.

You don't have to gather everyone together and smile at the camera.

Ask them to take a bunch of photos while you keep playing, talking, cuddling, cooking or doing whatever you were already doing.

Those photographs often tell you much more about your relationship than another picture of everyone smiling at the camera.

2. Use Video Instead of Trying to Beat the Timer

Self-timers are great in theory.

With a toddler? You've got approximately three seconds between pressing the button and somebody wandering away.

Instead, prop your phone somewhere safe and turn on video.

Then forget about it.

Read a book together. Build a tower. Have a tickle fight. Make cookies. Dance in the kitchen. Let your toddler climb all over you.

Later, you can pull a still frame from the video.

It doesn't need to be technically perfect. You're trying to preserve what this part of your life felt like, not win a photography competition.

3. Photograph the Things You Do Over and Over Again

It's natural to reach for the camera on birthdays, vacations, Christmas morning and the first day of school.

But don't forget about Tuesday.

The things that feel completely unremarkable right now are often the things that change without you noticing.

Maybe your two-year-old insists on sitting on the bathroom counter while you get ready.

Maybe they climb into your bed every morning.

Maybe you read the same book every night.

Maybe they “help” make dinner by standing beside you and eating half the ingredients.

Maybe they still want you to carry them upstairs when they're tired.

Those things aren't going to happen forever.

Set up your phone occasionally and photograph that.

4. Pay Attention to Reflections

Make it stand out

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

You don't always need a tripod or another person.

Sometimes you're already in the picture — you just have to notice it.

Bathroom mirrors while you're brushing teeth. Your reflection in a window while you're holding your child. The mirror by the front door while you're wrestling everyone into coats and boots.

When you notice one, take the picture.

Don't worry about making it artistic. You're simply giving yourself another way to exist in the visual record of your family's life.

5. Don't Automatically Look at the Camera

This is one of the biggest things I'd change if your goal is to have photographs that actually show your relationship with your kids.

Someone pulls out a phone and what do we automatically do?

Look! Smile!

Try not to.

If you're reading with your child and your partner starts taking pictures, keep reading.

If your toddler has their arms wrapped around your neck, look at them, not the camera.

If you're laughing together, keep laughing.

Because there's something you can't see when you're the person inside the moment:

the way your child looks at you.

When your child buries their face into you for a hug, you know exactly what that feels like.

But you can't see their expression.

You can't see what the two of you look like from across the room.

You can't see the way they watch you when you're focused on something else.

Those are often the photographs that become incredibly important later.

6. Hire Someone to Photograph You Living Your Life

You can hand someone your phone. You can set up a video. You can get much better at remembering to put yourself in the frame.

But you still can't photograph the moments you don't see.

That's where hiring a documentary family photographer (like me!) is different.

I'm not coming into your home to get everyone dressed up, lined up and smiling at me. I'm there to photograph what your family actually looks like from the outside.

Your toddler hanging off your leg while you're trying to make dinner.

The way they reach for you when they're tired.

The ridiculous wrestling match on the living room floor.

The expression on their face when you pick them up.

The way they look at you when you aren't looking back.

You know what all of those moments feel like. But you don't know what they look like.

I do.

For a few hours, you don't have to remember to hand someone the phone. You don't have to prop it on a shelf. You don't have to wonder whether you're in the pictures.

You just get to be with your family.

And I make sure you're in the story.

You Don't Need to Wait Until You Look Different

There's one more thing I wish more parents understood.

You don't need to wait until you've lost weight, bought better clothes, fixed your hair or reached some future version of yourself that you're happier to see in photographs.

Your kids aren't experiencing some future version of you.

They're experiencing you, right now.

And years from now, when this stage of your family's life is gone, the photographs aren't going to matter because everyone looked perfect.

They're going to matter because they show what it was like when your child was two, or three, or four — and you were right there in the middle of it.

So hand over the phone.

Prop it on a shelf.

Take the imperfect picture.

And every once in a while, let someone else take care of the photographs entirely so you can simply be there.

Because you belong in your family's photographs, too.

Want to see what it looks like when someone else takes care of the photographs and you get to simply be there?
Explore my Calgary documentary family photography? Learn more HERE.

Want to keep reading? This month, my blog circle is sharing ideas about family photography. Next, head over to Rosa in San Luis Obispo, who’s talking about Extended Family Photo Sessions in San Luis Obispo.