"Mama, now is NOT the time to be taking photos."

I find it amazing that my 3.5-year-old tolerates me shooting him constantly. When he begs to go outside because the other children are riding their bicycles, I make a deal with him, "If you let Mama shoot you, you can go outside and ride bikes."

"Okay!"

We both jumped to get our equipment: him - his retro red and white tricycle with tassel handlebars, and me - my Nikon D80 with 70-200 f/2.8. 

We both hustled outside before the sun when down - a great time to photograph children. He rode like he hadn't just told me he was "so tired, Mama," circling the courtyard until he couldn't take it anymore, grabbing for the tag in his shirt and popping in his thumb, all while trying to maintain peddling speed.

After 20 minutes of his on-and-off tag grabbing, I said, "Peanut, we should go in - you're exhausted." His tricycle hit the grass and he looked at me in frustration and said, "Mama, this is no time to be taking photos, please push me!" 

He made it through another half-circle around the courtyard and tiredly pulled up to the front door. His new, earlier bedtime brought out his inner personality tonight, and I was able to get this shot. It was so Norman Rockwell, I had to make it the lead photo for this particular batch.

Again I'm finding sunset is a great time to photograph children. If you're thinking about having your child photographed in a lifestyle portrait, read, "The Best Time to Have Your Child Photographed" below. And if you have any questions, feel free to post!

Happy Shooting!
~ Adrienne