Photographing with young children

I absolutely love photographing young children outside enjoying nature, it's so lovely to watch them explore and let their inquisitive minds run free, just enjoying the moment. People often ask me how on earth do I photograph children when all they want to do is run and play? The answer is I just go with the flow! It's very difficult to get young children to sit and pose, most of them like to remind us just how strong willed they are (which is admirable!) when it comes to being asked to do something they don't want to do – so instead I work on the things that they enjoy doing, I find out what makes them laugh and smile and want to play and explore their surroundings.

To help explain how a session works, I wanted to explain in more detail a recent session I had with a mother and daughter, where we visited the poppy fields just outside Northampton. Poppy has not long turned three and it seemed fitting to visit a field full of glorious poppies to celebrate.

We arrived at the fields early into the evening, the clouds were circling round threateningly but the sun kept pushing through and it made for some beautiful atmospheric weather. Poppy loved seeing the field of flowers, it was amazing for me as an adult to see them, so I can only imagine the awe Poppy had when she saw row after row of brilliant red flowers all around. Whilst they were taking in the view, I made sure the settings on my camera were set to what I wanted. We quickly got settled and I showed her my camera and explained that I was going to watch Poppy and her mummy play and explore in the field. I often do this with children who are old enough to understand what i'm saying, it helps them to understand what's going on. They are clever little souls and that shouldn't be underestimated. After Poppy had settled in her new environment I began the session properly.

Having chatted with Lydia previously, I knew how much Poppy enjoyed nature so I suggested we walk through the rows of flowers looking for rabbits. Suddenly both Lydia and I exclaimed that we'd seen a (pretend) rabbit going down a hole and immediately an excited Poppy was running down the rows trying to find out where it had disappeared to. I took the opportunity to begin photographing, capturing moments where she'd turn around and look around the field wondering where it had gone, looking back to her mum and asking her to follow so that they could find it. Once she realised that the rabbit wasn't going to appear again, we quickly distracted her from the disappearance of the rabbit to look for butterflies and insects that were landing on the flowers and it was amazing to see how interested she was in everything.

When I'd got the photos I wanted, I then began to focus on Lydia and Poppy's lovely relationship, I asked Poppy to take Lydia by the hand and lead her through the field to a place where they could dance and play hide and seek. Lydia twirled Poppy a few times before she declared, laughing, that she was too dizzy and wanted mummy to twirl instead!

Having photographed a lot of young children, it's a well known fact that their attention span is short lived, they like to keep mixing it up and in order to keep Poppy occupied and enjoying herself we focussed on the fact that we'd seen a Red Kite circling in the sky, Lydia picked Poppy up for some cuddles and, again, I took the chance to photograph them together watching the sky and the bird while enjoying some close bonding time. Once the Red Kite had disappeared Lydia put Poppy down and I suggested that they have a race down the rows of flowers. I declared that mummy would definitely run faster than Poppy and Lydia went along with it, agreeing that she would be fastest. Poppy started laughing and of course, like most three year olds, didn't agree with this at all and decided that she would be the one to win the race! This resulted in lots of laughing and giggling as they both enjoyed themselves just playing around with one another.

I ended the session letting Lydia and Poppy go off by themselves, taking a step back and watched what they chose to do when they were alone. They chose to look at the broad beans that were growing with the poppies. At home Lydia and her family grow their own food in their garden, it was a good opportunity for Lydia to talk with Poppy about the plants in the field and how they differed from the kinds of vegetables they were growing at home.

By the end of the evening, the sunset was beautiful, I adored our session and Lydia said they’d have a great time. We took our last photos and headed home where I couldn't wait to begin editing! As I said earlier, I absolutely adore these kinds of sessions, children are a pleasure to photograph and I think it’s so important to document their early years and get to keep these beautiful kind of memories in a photograph! If you have any questions or you’ve been thinking about having a session like this, i’d love to hear from you!