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

[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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Is this just rationalizing weaponized incompetence though? How is it that the most famous chefs and photographers are men, yet ordinary men apparently can’t invest a few hours of time learning how to cook or take good photos if it’s important to their wife.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Is this just rationalizing weaponized incompetence though? How is it that the most famous chefs and photographers are men, yet ordinary men apparently can’t invest a few hours of time learning how to cook or take good photos if it’s important to their wife.

My DH is a fantastic cook and a really terrible photographer.

It's especially hard for him to take photos of me with the kids because he doesn't get that with kids you kind of have to let them dictate how the photo goes, just try to capture what their doing. He will demand the kids look at him and smile and when one of them inevitably looks down or starts moving around, he gets annoyed and starts barking orders like "No Look At Me!! Look At Me!! Smile!! Smile!! Smile!!" It's stressful and results in the kids doing fake smiles while being miserable, and then often I'm looking down because when DH starts barking at the kids I start looking at them.

When I take pictures of DH with the kids, I just let them do their thing and I take a bunch of pictures and usually a few turn out. Sometimes I'll tell a joke or suggest they interact in a funny way and it doesn't matter if they like my joke or if they do what I say, I am just looking for something that might make them look at me or laugh or have some good energy, and then I go with it.

DH lacks the patience for that. When he's in the kitchen, the ingredients do what he tells them to. He turns the burner on, it gets hot. Photography is a different skill and is more like playing tennis -- you don't know where the ball is going to land, you just have to stay on your toes and hope you can get your racket on it when it comes. Some people are good at this and others are not. I think some bad photographers just don't have the disposition for the task.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Is this just rationalizing weaponized incompetence though? How is it that the most famous chefs and photographers are men, yet ordinary men apparently can’t invest a few hours of time learning how to cook or take good photos if it’s important to their wife.

Eh DH takes very few photos period. If he goes to a school event or kid game, even when I ask him to take photos and videos, he usually comes back with nothing so I don’t think he is purposely trying not to take photos of me or take bad photos. When I ask him to take a photo of me and the kids, I am in the center and he has whatever backdrop we are at. Is it flattering? Not always. Sometimes my eyes are closed or kids are looking away. It is what it is.

Everyone knows when we go on vacation, mom needs at least one nice family photo. Stranger usually takes this photo for us. It is a very similar posed family photo but at least I have that.

[Anonymous]

I ask other women (usually my age or younger) to take photos of us. The real ones know to take like 20 photos to pick from. I do the same for other families and will try to get different composition and framing for them.

I have engaged a photographer every couple of years, too.

[Anonymous]

Jimmy Kimmel’s wife on the subject

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJav2gnRzc8/

[Anonymous]

I have just stopped caring.