Madison Turns Two! - Taking Pictures of your Toddler Outdoors

I cannot believe my tiny baby girl is T W O!!  I remember her birth like it happened yesterday.  Time needs to really stand still.  We took the girls to Milo McGiver park where we had Madison's first birthday pictures taken (see the post here).  I decided to give it a go myself.  I'm thrilled at how they turned out!  This park has the most beautiful light and it's located in a valley, so the sun sets a little earlier (great for toddlers with early bedtimes!).  It's also never really that busy, so we didn't have anyone in the background of our photos.  Taking pictures of your toddler outdoors can actually be fun.  I have some tips below, but first a little update on Miss Madi!

tutu / two onesie (it was McKinlees!) / pink balloon / sandals

Madison Turns Two - Taking Pictures of your Toddler Outdoors

Madison is incredibly independent and easy going when we're out in a big group.  You'll often find her wandering around and entertaining herself.  When we are at home, she is usually defending herself and her toys from her big sis!  It's so tough being the youngest. 

Favorites

Madison is such a little mama.  She is obsessed with her dollies and can usually be found rocking and sushing them to sleep, or changing their diaper.  Swimming is one of her favorite activities!  We put the puddle jumpers on her and she had the hang of it within a day.  She loves going to the park and keeps up really well with McKinlee.  She loves Shimmer and Shine, Paw Patrol, Frozen (obsessed with Anna), and Trolls.  Her favorite books are O is for Oregon, 5 minute Pinkalicious stories, and Limu the Turtle.

Madison is turning into quite the picky eater.  She does love a few things though, like waffles, raspberries, bananas, spicy salsa, popsicles, popcorn, guacamole, applesauce and "cheesy rollups".

Madison gives the BEST hugs and always says "I love you".  She is such a little ray of sunshine and we are so lucky she chose us!

Tips for Taking Pictures of Your Toddler Outdoors

Taking pictures of kids can be really difficult.  There have been SO many times where I have everything set up, lighting is perfect, camera settings are ready to go and your kids just aren't into it.  I used to get incredibly frustrated which totally doesn't work.  Staying calm is my first tip.  You can't force them to cooperate (hello, we're talking about toddlers here!), so if they aren't into it try taking a break, give them a snack and let them run around.  Most often, they'll relax because you relax and sometimes you can get some shots of them on their "break".

flower crown

If you are doing photos for a big milestone where the photos are going to be important to you (like these ones were), try to scope out the setting and lighting at the same time you are planning on taking them.  We tried this same spot in December, and I thought I had everything figured out until we got there and the light was in a completely different spot.

My next tip is to give them something to do.  We had balloons (yep, we brought two with us and it was a good thing.  One of them floated into the sky within 2 minutes) for Madi to run around with.  When we were in the pathway, I told her to look and play with the rocks.  When we were in the daisies, I told her to pick some and look at them.

Bring help!  It's so nice to have someone to stand behind you to make your toddler laugh.  I like to shoot from their perspective, so if you have someone making then laugh, make sure they crouch down so they are behind your head so your subject isn't looking up or over at them.

Plan for no more than 20 minutes.  I find that is the perfect sweet spot for taking photos of toddlers.  They never seem to last longer than that!  Whenever possible, taking pictures of your toddler outdoors is going to be your best bet.  They'll be able to run free and you'll get so many candid shots!

Now that you've gotten through my tips, here are close to a million photos from our time at the park!

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Thank you for reading and following along with us!  Hopefully you found some helpful tips here.  Let me know if you have anything that works great for taking pictures of toddlers!  I'm always looking for new tricks.

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