Moms: how do you get good photos of yourself with your kids?

[Anonymous]

I shell out for a professional at least once a year. But yeah, virtually no good photos of me at home with our kids, versus hundreds of my husband with our kids.

[Anonymous]

My husband is the photo taker in our family and he's pretty good at it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband is the photo taker in our family and he's pretty good at it.

I'm glad for you but how is this helpful?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t care how awkward it is. I set up a mini tripod and prop up my phone. I can frame the photo any way I want and edit myself later. There are many on Amazon < $20 with a Bluetooth remote.

An Apple Watch also works as a camera remote.

[Anonymous]

My one ask for Mother’s Day every year is one good photo of me and the kids. DH understands the assignment and will take many, if which a few are great and I cherish next year.

But otherwise, I get the same up-angle Jabba the Hut treatment as PPs 🫠

[Anonymous]

Why don’t your husbands make an effort if it’s important to you?

Mine knows it is important to me so he proactively asks to take a pic of me with kids (or immediately reciprocates if I take one of him with kids) and also tries hard to do it well, even though he generally isn’t a particularly careful or artistic person.

I guess it’s good to be married to a non-Alpha male 😀

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t your husbands make an effort if it’s important to you?

Mine knows it is important to me so he proactively asks to take a pic of me with kids (or immediately reciprocates if I take one of him with kids) and also tries hard to do it well, even though he generally isn’t a particularly careful or artistic person.

I guess it’s good to be married to a non-Alpha male 😀

My husband does make an effort, he is just not a good photographer! So, like op I have great photos of everyone else, but not me.

OP we do a photo shoot once per year and I think it’s worth every penny. On holidays my sisters and I swap phones and get photos of each others’ families. When I am with my mom friends I stop and get photos of them with their kids, because I know they will love having them. That doesn’t help me, but my friends always say they’re so happy to have photos and I totally get it. My husband will take a photo any time I ask, and every now and then we get a good one, so keep trying.

On another note, my daughter and I did this dumb scavenger hunt on vacation. My daughter really wanted to win the prize so I went all in even though I was cringing a bit, going up to strangers asking them to do weird stuff like high five us for a picture. But I learned that 90% of strangers will stop and do you a random favor if you ask. So don’t be afraid to ask strangers to snap a shot, either! Particularly when you are in a beautiful place!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t your husbands make an effort if it’s important to you?

Mine knows it is important to me so he proactively asks to take a pic of me with kids (or immediately reciprocates if I take one of him with kids) and also tries hard to do it well, even though he generally isn’t a particularly careful or artistic person.

I guess it’s good to be married to a non-Alpha male 😀

My DH isn't an alpha male at all and will take a photo of me if I ask and he will try to take a good photo.

However, he is just bad at taking photos. He's trying, he's just not succeeding. I also think the more pressure he feels to get a "good" photo, the harder it is for him to do.

Also, as was previously mentioned, if you spouse only takes photos when you ask, you wind up exclusively with posed photos, and if he's not great at taking photos, these can look extra awkward. I do stuff like see my spouse teaching the kids how to hit golf balls in the back yard, and I'll snap a few photos with my phone. My DH never thinks of that so it just doesn't happen, and if I said "hey can you take some photos of this" he would insist on all of us turning our head to face the camera directly and smiling, so it's not really a photo of what is happening.

[Anonymous]

I used to feel this way. My oldest is now 16 and youngest is 8. I have plenty of pics with the kids. I have many more of just the kids and DH isn’t necessarily in them.

I have a ton of photos with my youngest. My friends or strangers have taken them of the two of us.

Do I have candids and videos capturing us in the moment? No, but I have a ton of those of the kids that I took. I don’t need to be in them.

[Anonymous]

Single mom here. I just ask other people. Most of the time they turn out decently.

[Anonymous]

There are some people who are more photogenic and know how to pose. I just went on vacation with a single mom and she is a pro with the selfie stick. She doesn’t have a husband to take her photos, yet she has tons of photos with her two kids. They are such a photogenic family. It probably helps that everyone in their family is gorgeous. Mom is super fit so there are no bad angles where her face looks fat or needs angle to make her look slender. Her children look like child models and they all are pro posers.

On vacation, my friend positioned me to also look better in photos.

[Anonymous]

Most men are not going to be good photographers or understand angles. A husband can take a photo of you and the kids. I have to ask mine to take the photo.

I was surprised at one dad with two teens and he knew all the tricks. He said he is used to being the photographer of his girls.

[Anonymous]

My husband would never even think to take a photo and if I ask him for one it just gets lost on his phone and I never see it again.
My mom takes a lot of photos but I look awful in all of them. She's completely focused on me and orders me to SMILE! Look happy!
When I smile the way she wants me to my eyes disappear and my chin and jaw look sort of sharp and masculine. So I do a smile that is a bit softer and she will stop the photo-taking process until I smile from ear to ear like she wants. I just end up looking annoyed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are some people who are more photogenic and know how to pose. I just went on vacation with a single mom and she is a pro with the selfie stick. She doesn’t have a husband to take her photos, yet she has tons of photos with her two kids. They are such a photogenic family. It probably helps that everyone in their family is gorgeous. Mom is super fit so there are no bad angles where her face looks fat or needs angle to make her look slender. Her children look like child models and they all are pro posers.

On vacation, my friend positioned me to also look better in photos.

This is why I’m fine with candids of the kids but posed photos for myself. I want to look good! A posed photo at a golf course will still remind me that I taught my kids to golf, even if I don’t get the action shots

[Anonymous]

Once a year we get pro photos taken. I prefer spring pictures to fall pictures. Mostly because I've found that spring pictures fit my house decor better and I enjoy looking at them more.