Living so far from my family I really treasure the time we are together. Last month it was our granddaughter’s (Little Piglet) first Birthday, and all the Piglet clan gathered in France to celebrate the occasion. Not only were our children altogether, but it was the first time our grandson, who is seven months and lives in the UK, met his French cousin “Little Piglet”, plus his aunty and uncle PIF.
As you can imagine my camera was in constant use as I tried to capture the special moments and preserve the wonderful memories. But can we really capture the emotions we feel and preserve them with the click of a button?
Oh, and I do take my hat off to professional photographers who specialise in family snaps. My goodness, it’s a real art trying to persuade two babies, to look at you (camera) at the same time, especially when one is intent on crawling off!
This post was inspired by the WordPress Weekly Photo challenge. The theme: “Together”…
Any tips on taking baby photos greatly appreciated!
Piglet in Portugal 
Wonderful, wonderful photos… the kids look so happy together. 🙂
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What sweet babies! I can’t look at a baby and not smile 🙂
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They are great shots! Take about a global family! You need someone to move to Australia!
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I meant talk about a global family, of course
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Hi,
Very nice photos of your grandchildren. 🙂
Thank you very much for your visit and your comment on my blog.
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Nice to see happy baby photos in the morning. Sets the day on course. Thanks!
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Thanks Linda…it’s even better to look at the real thing!
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Happy Birthday Little Pip. She’s adorable, I hope her next year is full of laughter and smiles and more get togethers with her handsome cousin. Pip your grandbabes are awesome. 🙂
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Hi EC,
They are certainly full of smiles and mischief, Another year and they will both be walking!
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Adorable, PiP! They look like they could be brother and sister. Happy belated Mother’s Day!
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Hi Rose, although 5 months difference in age they are the same size! Mothers day for me was in March.
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What a happy and beautiful family you have. So glad you had such a special time together!
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Thank you Chica 🙂 but it was sad to return home 😦
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great photo capturing the moment expecially the first one you couldnt have done better.
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Thanks ailsa. It was a very special moment 🙂
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Wonderful shots, PiP! Gorgeous grandbabies.
When I take photos of young children, I get down at their level and keep snapping away . . . knowing that many will not be worth keeping . . . but I won’t miss that perfect expression.
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Hi Nancy, it’s a good tip. I tend to forget I’m looking so far down on them.
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Beautiful children. Makes me wish our thirty year old son would get busy and provide us with grandchildren.
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Chubby, I never thought we would have grand children, but like buses they came close together!
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How lovely! They are adorable 🙂
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thanks Tilly, they are adorable, but I tend to be biased!
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You did a great job of capturing some precious moments with your grandchildren Carole – I especially like the first one, how Little Piglet is looking at her cousin – such joy and excitement on both faces!
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Hi Barb, it was so lovely to see them together 🙂 I miss them so much. Still I will be back with my little grandson shortly, so lots more photo opportunities then 🙂
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I’m no professional but have two kids so here are tips of what’s worked for me…
– use a camera with a good zoom lens…
– get low down… close floor level so that you are more in their eye contact range and you have more full face shots rather than half faces and lots of head/hair.
– Give them something new to look at / explore and watch the wonder as they explore it… use the zoom to get in close and click away unnoticed,
– don’t be scared to take 500 shots and hope that 5 will capture the magic moments.
– take separate shots as well as trying for the perfect group shot…
– realise that thea lot of it is down to luck, if you have a DSLR camera then you can keep clicking at a faster rate, hopefully the right split second will be captured, and timing is everything,
– use a small tripod
– if baby isn’t in the mood to for photos at that moment then nothing you will do can change their minds, … babies do “reasoning” extremely badly, and any attempts will only deteriorate an already hopeless situation, cut your losses and try another day.
– experiment with lighting… not too many shadows or full sun, move around them… just changing the angle you shoot from can have dramatic effects on the clarity of the resulting photos.
– try to photograph them as often as you can, the more you try the greater the chance of catching that elusive stunning moment.
– have fun, keep it really informal and laugh a lot! catching that ‘extra special” photo is bonus!
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Hi Kiwi, so many tips – THANK YOU! 🙂 I will be with my little grandson again in a couple of weeks 🙂
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I look forward to seeing the results of the “second shoot”… he’s adorable btw … they both are 🙂
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Lovely photos, kids at that age always get on well 🙂
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It was lovely to see them together and how they intereact 🙂
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I now live in NZ and the family get together are quite special, I manage to get home evert two years
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My goodness that’s a long way from your family. How do you manage?
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I can log into a WordPress blog that I accidentally deleted? Ah well, the important part is that I tell you that you’re just a natural photographer, and that the more you try, the more your eye will notice. Pretty soon you’ll be lugging all sorts of lighting equipment to these family gatherings, along with cords over which to trip!
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Strange you can log into a deleted blog…can you resurrect it then?
I don’t know about a natural photographer I just snap away and hope for the best. The problem is I’m always behind the camera and there’s very few pics of me with grandbabes piglets. Hey ho!
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I love that first photo, Carole! The way you captured the two allows my eye to travel from one to your granddaughter–it’s perfect! Happy happy moments, I’ll bet.
And now I’ll see if I can log in adequately. Heh.
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Thanks Jan 🙂 I never did capture a photo though of them both looking at the camera. In the middle photo – I’ve captured 2 people trying to get their attention and another camera showing the babes in the viewer. I took about 50 digital pics before little piglet got bored and crawled off, and not one photo showed them both looking at the camera at the same time.
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you dont need tips you captured the moments, brilliant
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They are so cute. How lovely that you managed to get the whole family together for the special occasion.
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I was over the moon! Grandma heaven 🙂
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great pics! how cute
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They are such cuties 🙂
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They both look gorgeous. No idea on how to take baby pics but looks to me like you did a good job anyway! You must really look forward to seeing them – I know from the expats I know here, they all miss their grandchildren terribly. Thank goodness for Skype!
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It was wonderful to have them BOTH in the same place at the same time. Grandma heaven, but exhausting. I can’t believe I had three babes under three
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