As soon as a couple finds out that they are pregnant, the first thing they do is buy a camera to record their baby’s first precious moments. The first time your baby opens her eyes, the first time she smiles, those moments are fleeting and gone forever, unless captured and preserved forever because they grow so fast. It is important to document the innocence of youth by capturing it in an image, to anchor memories around happy times.

Professional photography, while good at documenting growth and change, never seems to capture the real child, that playful little spirit that inhabits your day. You have to do it yourself, immediately when it happens and at the moment it happens. So how to do that? Well, it is not as difficult as it may seem. You don’t need to be a professional photographer. With a little forethought and a camera at the ready, you too can freeze those special moments for you and your child.

A simple point-and-shoot digital camera is really all you need. Most cameras made today have autofocus so you don’t have to fiddle with settings. And many of the budget cameras perform well, similar to their more expensive cousins. Pay attention to the pixel count, as this will determine how well you can zoom in on your shots, if you choose to do so. The more pixels, the bigger you can make the image and the better the resolution.

Four child photography tips:

1. Capture the moment – Children are natural actors and clowns, and they approach life as an adventure, because for them it is. They don’t really know what’s around the next corner, so it’s best to hang back and watch them discover. Don’t try to pose or stage them in front of something. That’s when they get stiff, trying to please you. Let them play. Let them experiment. Have your camera ready for when the magic happens.

2. Shoot like a pro – Look Later: One of the secrets of photography is that capturing a special moment can take more than one shot. Sometimes it takes multiple shots and you don’t see the best one until later when you look at the photos again. Shooting digitally lets you immediately look at your shots, so you can delete or save the good ones. However, if you do that, you might miss out on the big one because the kids don’t stop playing, they keep moving.

So here’s a suggestion, instead of taking a picture and looking at it, just take and take and look at it later. You can always delete the ones you don’t like, but you will never be able to recover the lost moment while looking at the pictures one at a time. If you’re always waiting for that magic shot, it’ll never come, so just fire the shutter and you’ll find the magic.

3. Get into your take- Most people tend to grab a camera and immediately walk away from the subject. That is not a good idea when taking pictures of your children. You don’t want to be on top of them to stifle their spontaneity. But you do want to be close enough that “they” are the subject of the shot. In other words, fill your viewer with the action or the child’s head and shoulders. Losing the fund, the statutes, the children’s games. These are just distractions within the frame. Remember that you are taking photos of your children, not the tree behind them, so crop them in the viewfinder. This is called viewer editing.

4. Shoot manually instead of automatically – After looking at your photos and getting familiar with your camera, you may decide you want to try the manual setting instead of relying on the automatic setting. Most digital cameras allow for manual adjustment and come with easy-to-understand instructions. However, some things about cameras, old or new, are forever.

For example, if you’re trying to capture action, you should have a fast shutter speed. Most cameras refer to it as “stopping the action.” Closing speeds greater than 1/250 will stop the action. The faster the shutter speed, the better. You will also need to adjust your aperture settings. The aperture determines the amount of light that is let into the camera. Sunny days require less light than cloudy days. Practice shooting in various light conditions to become familiar with how to adjust your equipment.

Don’t be intimidated by your team. Follow these four child photography tips and have fun with the camera and enjoy the children at play. Take photos while they play and you will find those special moments of memory, guaranteed.

I hope these child photography tips have been useful to you.