The weather is finally warming up, which means Fyrefly will inevitably be back to taking pictures of some of our favorite subjects: Families and kids.

But you probably want great pictures of your kids more than once every year or 6 months. Unfortunately, Nathan can’t move into your home to capture beautiful every day shots of your kids (that would probably be weird). But YOU certainly can capture more of those moments yourself. Really, I promise it’s not hard and you don’t even have to have a fancy-shmancy camera.

I found this great little article on Ohdeedoh (one of our favorite parenting and family sites,) called 5 Ways to Take Better Photos of Kids.

It’s definitely worth reading if you want to become a better photo-documentarist (is that a word?) of your kids’ lives. One of my favorite principals they share is to avoid smiles. This may sound counter-intuitive to you, but think about it. You will always have plenty of pictures of your kid’s beautiful smiles, but when they turn 18 one day, don’t you want to remember their little 2 year old pouty face? Or even your sweet baby’s loudest cry face? Or your toddler’s hiding-under-the-dining-room-table-to-fill-my-diaper-face?

If you’re always waiting around for them to smile you would miss priceless shots like this:

Plus, they might get really sick of you following them around with your camera in one hand and Brobee puppet in the other, trying your best to make them laugh with your DJ Lance moves- and that would just be a shame.