Rule #9

Tonight while I was putting Noah to bed I was teaching him about the "Five Finger Rule" which is something that I used to teach my students when I did guidance lessons. It's basically just five strategies to try when someone is bothering you or being mean: 1- ignore, 2- say please stop, 3- walk away, 4- say stop, 5- ask an adult for help. There are little tricks that go along with each one to help kids remember them.

When we finished talking about each one, Noah said, "well, I would just kick them in the face... that's rule #9"

I had my "Portfolio- Building Portrait Party" this week-end. Three of my friends were able to come with a total of 7 kids. My goal was to get at least one good shot of each child, and I surpassed it! I was so happy with how they came out.

I've started putting some on my photography blog: www.jenniferchristensenphotography.blogspot.com

The one thing I need more practice with is engaging the kids. I was so worried about and focused on my camera settings, framing the shot correctly, staying still to prevent blur, etc. that I had a hard time making the kids smile and look towards me. Luckily their moms were there to help. I just remember leaving professional photo places and being upset that I was expected to "do all the work" to get my kids to smile. I remember thinking that it was their job to take the pictures. Now I realize that it's harder than it looks. I appreciate those that we went to who were able to get the kids to laugh and take good pictures a lot more now that I know what it actually takes. I'm hoping that once I get more comfortable with the actual picture taking, I will be better at entertaining the kiddos.