I took for granted how easy it was to take a photo of my firstborn. All those memes online about first borns, and the children that follow are so accurate. My oldest boy is always a great listener/rule follower. Throw everything out the window when working with more than one of your children to look at the camera. Ha! I can now see why people hire photographers for capturing photos of your kids.

My chaotic ways to get my kids to look at the camera while trying to hit the shutter button as quickly as possible? 1. Bring their favourite snack and bribe them with it (LOL). 2. Bring a toy they haven’t seen in a while. 3. Tell your kids “look at the cute puppy” walking down the trail with their owner. Hey! I didn’t say these were fantastic ideas, but you gotta work with what you have, am I right? Also, when working with kids I now know to keep the timing short. They can’t handle a 30+ min photo session. Pick out your location and where you want the kids to be, and let them be…play around, and snap away.

It was a funny sight to see me trying to bribe my little guy with snacks or toys wiggling above my head as I got these shots. Most of the good ones here were because he saw a person walking their dog on the trail behind me. I love how they turned out regardless, and I love that these colours worked both with their hair colours, and the location.

Speaking of location, I’m not about to gatekeep it which so often many people do. I asked someone one time where they took their photos and they were secretive about it. So here it is, please go there, it’s absolutely beautiful and has many looped trails to walk on.

Guadalupe Oak Grove Park
5982 Thorntree Drive San Jose, CA 95002