Why Photographing Babies Is So Difficult

I was trying to take Christmas Photos of my niece this evening - and where fun, I can only tell you that it's a lot of work! Even with my sister and husband helping, it's difficult to hold the attention of an infant for more than a split second... To boot, every now and then, my husband would chime in, "Kelly, you missed that - you need to be ready!"

First off, Let me tell you, I may not have been ready, but he kept getting into the shot!

All kidding aside, he was very helpful (way to go honey!), but you can't always make babies do what you need them to. Check out these facial expressions and tell me honestly if you would want your Christmas cards to look like this:

Or this:

Maybe certain Christmas Greetings warrant that kind of expression - like this little "If Looks Could Kill" number - shouldn't every bad babysitter, doc who gives bad diagnoses, or pain-inducing dentist receive this card?

Then, my niece started to wiggle - a lot... She'd get distracted, and begin to slink away...

Going, going GONE!

What was interesting was my dog, Eb. Whenever my niece got close, he hightailed it out of her way... If you're humming the Beatles "I Don't Know Why You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello" right now, you aren't the only one!

Incidentally, here's another shot of Eb walking around the corner - looking very cautious to say the least!

Sometimes, the problem was depth perception...

And the wiggling... The child is a bowl of potential and kinetic energy all rolled into one cute - but fast package!

Sometimes, she just got distracted...

For this shoot, we purchased two feather boas we wanted to return (Come on - you'd do it too!) so there was the ever-present danger of the tag getting in the shot:

Then she'd blink:

Or get sleepy:


To make the baby sit in one spot, I had my sister lie on the floor. We covered her up with a Christmas tablecloth... But she kept making cameos in the shots!


Sometimes, the baby would just do an about face:


Eventually, I shot a few that I think could actually make a cool Christmas Card - Which one would you use?