While leading the SITS Spring into Action Photo Challenge earlier this month, I was lucky enough to meet Natalie of Little Things. There’s something really interesting about the photos Natalie chooses to share of her children and ever since I discovered this it’s weighed on my mind.
I’m very interested in child photography, however I’ve come to realize I don’t do a lot of practicing on my children. I practice new techniques I learn on things that don’t move around quite so much. It seems at least some of that practicing has payed off though because the photos I took of my children at Easter are worlds better than the shots I got the previous two years. (Granted, I was using a point and shoot for those, but still…)
All of the photos below were shot in manual mode with my 50mm f/1.8 lens. (Okay, one was shot with my 18-105mm lens.) They are lightly clean edited and un-manipulated according to the linked definition. You can hover over each photo to show the specs for the shot.
If you’re not already familiar with Natalie‘s child photography secret for her site, see if you can’t guess the technique through the photos below. I’ll reveal it at the end of this article!
This is Mr. Serious’ third and Boa’s very first Easter Egg Hunt! While Boa was around last year, he couldn’t even crawl yet so he sat on the lawn and enjoyed watching Mr. Serious find the eggs. This time he was more than eager to jump in and find them too!
My hair is curly and my husband’s hair is very wavy so it’s not really surprising I have two curly haired boys. I absolutely love their gorgeous hair! (Washing it, on the other hand, I do not love.)
My sister-in-law fosters a lot of dogs and I think she’s fostering (or maybe dog-sitting?) this adorable Boston Terrier, Willow. Boa was extremely interested in her and both the boys took turns walking her.
These cute little wicker baskets were $2 more expensive at Walgreens than the extremely long handled baskets we’ve purchased in the past, but I couldn’t resist them! They are a lot easier for the boys to hold onto and held just as many eggs.
Boa stops to take a stick break. He’s adored sticks since he gained the ability to grip things with his hands.
My kids take a moment to compare their baskets. Boa gave Mr. Serious several Easter eggs when he complained there were no more eggs left to find. What a sweet little brother! Mr. Serious later payed him back by allowing Boa to keep all the cracked eggs in his basket.
I did not anticipate the boys falling in love with these eggs so much. They were real eggs and several (probably too many) of them were eaten, but at the end of the day over a dozen were thrown away because they were just too gross to eat after all that toddler-handling.
The Special Secret
Did you guess what ties all these photos in together?
All of them were faceless!
I did not start out the day intending to shoot in this style. In fact, I got a lot of photos including their faces. Following the kidlets from the distance required with the 50mm gave me a good opportunity to get the back of their heads a lot. Luckily, the back of their heads are super curly cute!
As child photography starts merging more with parents who want to show off their photography skills on their blog, I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of this style. I think it’s an excellent solution for bloggers who want to share photos of their life while still respecting their kids’ privacy. I’m toying quite seriously with adopting this style for my blog.
What About You?
Do you share photos of your children on your blog? Have you struggled with where to draw the line in terms of their privacy? What about this “faceless” method do you like or dislike?
I’d love to get a discussion going and hear your feedback!
Twitter: @natablog
I’m flattered that you mentioned me! Thanks so much. I’m so glad we were able to “meet” via the SITs photography challenge, as I adore your style of photography. I only hope to up my skills and become as amazing as you are!
Twitter: @PhotoLynda
Thanks Natalie! Totally in love with your faceless idea.
Love these!! They are all really good – it gives the impression that your easter egg hunt was very calm. While I wouldn’t necessarily want 100% faceless shots in a collage of a holiday they certainly are great shots… I’ll have to try that again next time I’m out with my kids.
Twitter: @PhotoLynda
Oh yeah – I definitely wouldn’t want all faceless stuff in my personal photo albums! No way! But I think it’s an interesting style for bloggers concerned with child privacy to consider!
I’m not so terribly concerned with their privacy and it doesn’t really bother me to have pictures of them and their faces out there.
Thanks Faith!
Twitter: @kg_photography
No kids for me. But I don’t take/share pictures of my boyfriend’s son or his niece and nephew, even though I’ve been told that I can share them. I just don’t feel comfortable doing it unless I have a signed model release from the parents.
I think I’d share pictures of my own kids, but just not write their names down.
It looks like they had a lot of fun. Did the little one understand what was going on? Did you have to keep him on track with the egg hunt? So adorable.
I love that there are no faces, I didn’t notice at first, it just gave all the pictures this intense focus – they’re so into what they’re doing.
Twitter: @PhotoLynda
Thanks Kimberly! My views on child privacy (or even personal privacy) on the internet are a lot less conservative than most. I don’t care if people know the names of my kids, but I decided to take them out of this blog to keep Google searches and web archives clear of their name for when they start to build an “internet career” later in life.
My littlest one totally knew what was going on. We didn’t need to keep them on track at all. In fact, they were still searching for eggs long after they found them all. I kept sneaking eggs out of their baskets to hide all over again.
Twitter: @caseyyu
My preference would have been to see their faces
I think I would have made a deeper emotional connection with them, as a bystander, had I been able to see their faces, but I can totally see wanting to celebrate other aspects of them that are important to you (as I think about my kids who have stick straight hair…) 
I am not worried about publishing my kids’ pictures online at all, but on my photo page I only put people who’ve signed releases – since I know not everyone has the lack of filter I do on publishing pictures
Twitter: @PhotoLynda
I’m not worried about publishing my kids’ pictures either as far as strangers looking at their photos are concerned. I am worried that ten years from now their classmates will find my site and tease them over their baby pictures or whatnot. Though I do try to leave out any potentially embarrassing pictures or stories.
Twitter: @caseyyu
Hah! True. Although kids will still tease regardless of how many or few pictures I have of them online, so my goal is to make the ones that do show up online look pretty darn good.
My iPhone pics aside, of course.
Twitter: @AshleyRSisk
I actually love this style because I think it tells a story so I like to mix in these types of shots in addition to seeing some faces.
Twitter: @PhotoLynda
Thanks Ashley! Just curious, do you get permission before posting pictures of other kids/people in your blog? By current US laws, it’s not a requirement but definitely the polite thing to do. I’m just curious as to how other people handle it!
I usually just post pictures of my family or people in very public situations so I don’t have to deal with it at all.
Twitter: @AshleyRSisk
Up until this point – I’ve been photographing family or friends…and I always ask if they are comfortable with me posting the photos to my blog in which case they say, sure, no problem. I’ve only had one couple request that I not post them to my blog and I didn’t. I need to actually prepare a model release though for future use.
Twitter: @glossymimi
I am rather non conservative when it comes to posting pictures of my children on the blog. I don’t post a ton of pictures of them but I do leave off their real names. I think that adds to the blog. However, I do like the idea of faceless photos. Unfortunately its too late for me to implement this now!
Twitter: @PhotoLynda
Thanks for your reply, Mimi!
I wouldn’t say it’s too late to implement now. I’ve thought of going “faceless” though I don’t think I will. I wouldn’t remove all my “faced” photos and I think it would be fine considering my children are going to only vaguely resemble their younger selves in several years’ time.
I enjoyed this discussion very much. Loved the pictures even without faces.
Twitter: @PhotoLynda
Thanks!
Twitter: @multiplemama
I do post pics of my kids, faces and all. But I don’t usually blog about them per se. I value their privacy but don’t keep them completely anonymous. Love the perspective in your photos.
Twitter: @PhotoLynda
Thanks for your response, Andrea! I’m not sure how old your kids are. Do they know you post their photos and are they okay with that? I wonder how different bloggers handle that.