Please tell me I'm not the only parent to have experienced this: You get your little one all fancied up for a professional photo session, only to have them balk and lose their little minds at the very prospect.
And it seems to be an age-related thing. My daughter's first one, at about seven months, was completely hilarious – she flirted with the camera, smiled huge for all her pictures, and generally seemed to consider the whole thing a great time. Five months later for her one-year picture, her enthusiasm waned, and she just flatly refused to sit for her two-year pictures (we managed to get one shot for posterity because of the nice photographer's idea to blow bubbles across the room). For her last birthday, we practically had to wrest her bodily out of the studio, she loved it so much.
Now we're planning the same rite of passage with the boy, so I found this article by professional photographer Anna Myers especially interesting. She suggests the best ages to do professional portraits are between five and ten days old, maybe around four months, definitely at six or seven months, nine months and about 13 months. (excuse me, but who are these people that are all ready for professional portraits at five days postpartum? The only reason I could get it together to brush my teeth and shower, never mind get prettied up for a photo session, is because my husband was home).
I'm not so sure about that many photo sessions, and if I was better with a camera I'd just do them myself. But I'm not, so wish us luck.
